Ichigo and the Brothers Bread
by RocketDwarf
Summary: Ichigo dies at the end of his fight against Aizen, and is reincarnated as Peeta Mellark. This is my first fanfic, but don't be nice. Rated T for paranoia and because it's the Hunger Games.
1. Chapter 1

Well, here goes, my first story, fanfic and crossover all in one. I hope you enjoy it.

The sound of the alarm clock's bells filled the small room with their incessant ringing. A chorus of yawns and groans swiftly followed as Ichigo and his two older brothers were roused from their sleep.

"Mornin'"

"G'mornin"

"Someone get th' clock."

Ichigo rose to the challenge, swinging down off the top of a rickety bunk-bed to touch the top of a small, mechanical alarm clock, silencing it.

"Thanks," muttered Littora, the oldest of the three.

"Don't mention it," Ichigo replied. Ichigo knew that the time, while he couldn't see the clock in the low light, was 4 AM. The room was simple, slightly dirty, and very cramped. If a person were to walk in at that very moment, they would see a bunk-bed to their right and a small cot on the left. Directly across from the door was a dresser that the three brothers stored their clothes in. Behind the window, half covered by the dresser, was a small and grimy window covered in moth-eaten curtains. The imaginary intruder would also have seen three well-muscled brothers, the youngest' bright orange hair, still easily distinguishable even in the dark, and deep amber eyes in stark contrast with his brothers' dirty blond locks and sky blue eyes. The three brothers took their time to dress and prepare for their day, finding and laying out their best clothes. Today was the day of the annual reaping; the day when one girl and one boy from each of the twelve districts would be taken from their families and to a huge outdoor arena to fight to the death. The practice was a barbaric and disgusting reminder of the Districts' failure to defeat the Capitol in an uprising that had been crushed seventy four years ago. The three brothers had asked their mother if they could sleep in on the day of the reaping but she had immediately refused, saying that it would break their schedule and be less useful in the bakery. And so there they stood, just outside the doorway of their room, unsure of what to do with their free time.

"So… what now?" Said Eptasi, the second oldest. He voiced the three brother's thoughts perfectly. What now? With a whole day to spend, what could they do to pass the time? They spent nearly every day in the bakery, moving heavy sacks of flour, kneading dough, and baking bread. Today though, the bakery was closed. They stood silently in the small hallway outside their room for a while, deep in thought and trying to come up with Ideas. It was Ichigo who finally broke the silence.

"I don't know, let's just start walking."

As the three siblings made their way down a street in the merchant district, Ichigo's thoughts turned back to the day of his death for what felt like the millionth time…

_A cold feeling was spreading slowly from the hole in Ichigo's chest. Aizen's hand had pierced Ichigo's chest the moment the man realized that Ichigo was powerless._

_"You have lost, Ichigo Kurosaki," Aizen gloated, "behold! My Zanpaktou is disappearing," he continued, holding up the disintegrating blade for Ichigo to see. "The Hogyoku has determined that I no longer need a Zanpakuto!" He continued his rant, going on about how far into his 'transcendence' he was as Ichigo's consciousness began to fade. It was not a thing he wanted to hear while he breathed his last few dying breaths. "You're finished! Ichigo Kurosaki!" Aizen took a breath as if to go on, but he was cut off when a glowing spike of red light appeared, stabbing him through his chest. The man stared at the spike for a second, shocked. The singular spike was followed by more, stabbing through his chest in a pattern that resembled a cross "What is this?" He demanded, staggering back and removing his hand from Ichigo's chest, "Is this kidou? When could it have been…?" He trailed off as he reached dup to his chest._

_"Seems like it's finally activated." A new voice, quiet yet severe, commented. Kisuke Urahara, hat and all, landed softly on the ground nearby. Ichigo couldn't keep his mind trained on Urahara's voice as he explained that the red light was a kidou that he himself had specially designed to seal Aizen's power._

_Aizen began to rant once more about his power, obviously in denial of his defeat. As he spoke, the red light turned solid and grey as it spread across his body. The last things Ichigo saw before the last of his life left him, was Aizen being engulfed by the grey substance and then his encased form morphing into a cross._

"Peeta… Peeta?" Ichigo was dragged out of his thoughts by Eptasi's hand on his shoulder.

"Huh… oh. Yes?" Ichigo mumbled, his mind still halfway in the past.

"You spaced out, you've been doing that a lot recently," Said Littora, his voice filled with concern.

Hogyoku "Nervous? Me too," said Eptasi, his hand squeezing Ichigo's shoulder.

"I'm fine, really, don't worry about me," Ichigo said.

Ichigo had never really gotten used to being the youngest sibling of three. In his previous life, he had always been the older brother figure, there to protect his younger sisters, even if it meant certain death. Now, he was the youngest of three, essentially the kid-brother.

"c'mon, race you two to the fence!" Ichigo called as he raced off in the direction of the district limits. He didn't want them to worry about him, he _hated_ being worried about.

"Hey, wait! Peeta!" Littora called after him, but he was already gone, having climbed onto a nearby rooftop. Ichigo had introduced his two brothers to the idea of getting around by climbing on the rooftops about two years ago, and they had taken to it surprisingly well, lightly jumping from roof to roof with practiced ease. Neither of them, though, could understand how Ichigo was able to do it so easily and skillfully. It was like his feet never touched roofing as he made his way across the district.

_"It's like he's been doing it since before he was born,"_ Eptasi had joked once when Ichigo had yet again left both him and Littora in the dust. He would never know how close to the truth he was. Their younger brother often confused and troubled them. Once, he was a sweet child that often smiled a huge, joyful smile that was quite endearing. But everything changed on a rainy day five years ago. The orange haired ten-year-old was getting ready for bed in their shared room after a particularly nasty hit to the head from their mother. From what his two older brothers could gather, he had received the beating because he burnt some bread. Just as he about to climb up to his bunk, he fell down to his knees for a brief moment and stood up a minute later almost a different person. Gone was the bright, endearing smile his brothers knew him so well for, replaced by a hardened scowl and a hot-tempered demeanor.

The first few weeks after The Change (as Eptasi and Littora called it in private) were the hardest. Ichigo hardly spoke at all and when they asked if he was all right he would just brush them off, saying he was fine. After about a month, their brother began to come alive again. He began to open up to them, and he even smiled every once and a while, although never as vibrantly as before. It was like getting to know a completely new person. He had new mannerisms, new opinions about things, and his scowl, although it almost never left his face, actually showed a surprising range of emotion. He began to go out after the bakery closed, breaking out in a full-on sprint to somewhere unknown the second the door closed.

Eventually, about a year after The Change, he approached them, asking if they wanted to join him in his regimen. Wanting to spend more time with their little brother, and also curious about what he did while he was out, they accepted his offer. So began their intensive and grueling training. Each day, after the bakery was closed and the three brothers were released, Ichigo started by having them run as fast as they could along a route that only Ichigo knew. For the first couple of months, they had been unable to reach their goal, running out of energy before they could reach the end of their brother's route. When they could go no further, Ichigo would send them back to the bakery while he himself set off again. They were amazed by his incredible stamina and drive, and they wondered how it was even possible for him to become so strong in only a year. The two brothers had become increasingly curious about Ichigo's destination, often pestering him about it. Ichigo refused to tell them every time, saying that they would have just have to find out for themselves. One day, about halfway through the third month of Ichigo's training, they finally reached their goal.

"This is it," said Ichigo.

"Made it!" Eptasi and Littora panted nearly in unison.

"So, what now?" Littora asked, curiously taking a look at the place where they had arrived and wondering what Ichigo had planned next.

The place that they had arrived at was a small meadow. On the opposite side from where the three siblings were standing, was the forest. Running through the meadow and cutting down the middle, was the tall fence topped by barbed wire that lined the entire district. The fence was supposed to be electrified, but power was intermittent in district twelve, so it was usually dead and safe to touch.

"Into the forest," Ichigo replied matter-of-factly. There was a pause, before both older brothers burst into laughter.

"You nearly had me for a second there," said Eptasi, "nice one, little… AAHHH!" He cut himself off when he saw Ichigo slipping under the fence and through to the other side. "Hold on, wait! Stop!" He called franticly, "do you have any idea what they'll do to you if you get caught?"

"Yes," came Ichigo's curt reply, "I'm not planning on getting caught," he continued. "Look, either go home or come with me, but if we stay here any longer, we really _will_ get caught." Making a quick decision, Littora and Eptasi quickly crossed through the opening in the fence that Ichigo had just used. Ichigo took them into the forest, tracing a route he had become familiar with. They emerged in a flat, grassy field littered with improvised training equipment. Then, he shocked his brothers once more by telling them both to try to come at him at once and subdue him.

"But we might hurt you!" Littora protested.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Now come." Ichigo said, taking a defensive stance. The two brothers were hesitant, gently trying to grab Ichigo's arms or legs, only to be easily deflected and thrown to the ground. They picked themselves up and turned to face their surprisingly skillful younger brother. "I said not to worry about hurting me!" Said Ichigo as he surged forward for a counter-attack. He danced around his older brothers, focusing on knocking the wind out of them without seriously hurting them. They began to become less cautious when they realized that their punches wouldn't connect. Ichigo, seeing that he had gotten his point across, threw them both to the ground to end the fight.

"Wow," gasped Eptasi from his resting place on the grass.

"Yeah," agreed Littora, "Where'd you learn how to fight like that?"

"Who knows," Ichigo replied, offering a hand to him. After Littora was on his feet, they both helped Eptasi up as well. "I wanted to show you what I'm going to teach you in action. Sorry if I hurt you," Ichigo said.

"You can teach us to do that?" Littora asked, thoroughly impressed.

"Of course," Ichigo replied, "that's the reason I brought you two out here."

"I'm in!" Said Littora.

"Me too!" Eptasi added.

"Let's get started then," said Ichigo. Over the next few months, Ichigo built his brothers' strength and technique, helping them become stronger. He never said it to them, but one of his main goals in strengthening his brothers was to prepare them so that if one of them got reaped for the Hunger Games, then he would have a much higher chance of winning. That was four years ago. Now, Littora and Eptasi were fit and very skilled.

Ichigo, Littora, and Eptasi (In that order, Littora and Eptasi having raced each other on the way,) arrived at the fence that they so often crawled under to get to their secret training area in the forest. They made their way over to a secluded corner created by a small group of trees, and sat down together. The brothers had discovered the little alcove a while ago, and now used it to rest after their training sessions. It was about 5 AM, and the sun had just started its appearance. The next two hours were spent happily bantering back and forth and avoiding the subject of the Reaping.

"Shh!" Ichigo suddenly hissed when he felt a reiatsu approaching, "Someone's coming." Littora and Eptasi, having learned long ago to listen to their younger brother when he said something like this, immediately stopped talking and sunk further into the thicket of trees. The approaching presence turned out to belong to a sixteen year old girl with olive skin, grey eyes, and long black hair worn in a braid.

_I wonder if she has a boyfriend…_ Came a thought, unbidden, from Ichigo's mind.

_I did NOT just think that._ He thought.

_You didn't, I did._

_Zangetsu? Is that you?_ Ichigo asked tentatively.

_Indeed,_came Zangetsu's measured reply.

_Nice to hear you again, Zangetsu. But how?_ Ichigo asked. He had spent the five years, trying to call forward some sort of power from his previous life. All he had been able to regain before now was some of his reflexes and strength, and it was not even _close_ to what he had had before he died. Naturally, he was curious about why his zanpakuto would decide to appear now.

I am not familiar with how reincarnation works and it is likely that you, as unique as you are, do not follow the normal rules in any case, Zangetsu answered thoughtfully.

_So you don't know,_ Ichigo thought.

No. At that, the conversation trailed of briefly before Ichigo remembered what his zanpakuto said earlier.

_What was that about that girl having a boyfriend, anyway?_ Ichigo asked worriedly. His zanpakuto had always been quiet and measured, never surfacing to speak unless it was absolutely necessary. Hearing him talk about girls felt _wrong_, and it sent shivers down his spine just thinking about the implications.

_I am merely voicing the thought that you would never allow yourself to think._ Replied Zangetsu.

_What the hell is that supposed to mean?_ Ichigo mentally shouted, feeling confused.

_That you like her._

Ichigo felt a slight blush paint his features at this.

_Of course I don't! That was a long time ago and that wasn't me, it was Peeta._

_You ARE Peeta._

"Peeta?" Said Littora.

"Yeah?" Ichigo said quietly.

"She's gone now," Littora said.

"Oh… Right," Ichigo replied, still dwelling on what Zangetsu had said.

"Oh…? Does our little brother have a crush?" Teased Eptasi, misinterpreting Ichigo's vague response as wistfulness. Ichigo blinked, realizing what Eptasi had just said.

"Geeze! Why does everyone keep thinking I like that girl?" Ichigo cried out in frustration, his eyebrow beginning to twitch slightly. There was an awkward silence.

"…"

"…"

"Who's 'everyone'?"

"No one…"

"…"

_I blame you for this, Zangetsu._

The three brothers recovered from the earlier awkwardness relatively easily, slipping back into their familiar and comforting banter and spending another two hours in the thicket of trees before getting up to find some food. After finding some meat pies that were with their budget, they made their way leisurely around town. The closed and darkened shops added to the general feeling of anxiety. It wasn't much to see, but the brothers wanted to spend as much time as possible together, in case today would be their last as a group of three.

"It's almost one o'clock, and the reaping starts at two" Littora said, looking up at the town clock, "we shouldn't be late."

"Guess you're right," said Ichigo. The three brothers made their way towards the town square. Ichigo took note of the feeling of fear that emanated from the people around him, it felt suffocating. The Mellark brothers found themselves surrounded by people as they made their way to the square. Every person fervently hoped that neither they nor their family members would be reaped. His customary scowl deepened at the sight of the brightly colored banners erected to celebrate the annual blood-sport that the 12 districts were forced to compete in. Camera crews covered the roofs as they tried to capture footage of the grisly event from every angle. In front of the Justice Building was a temporary platform supporting a podium in the center with three chairs behind it. The podium was flanked by two large glass balls filled with the names of all the people unfortunate enough to be aged between twelve and eighteen. The time had come for the three brothers to separate and make their way to their designated sections.

"I guess this is it. Good luck, both of you," said Littora, putting a hand on both his brothers' shoulders before turning to head to the spectator section. Littora was no longer eligible for the reaping, having just turned nineteen recently.

"Good luck," Eptasi said, turning to Ichigo.

"I'll see you both after the reaping," said Ichigo, before making his way to his section of the crowd. When he reached his designated section, he noticed that only two of the three chairs on the stage were filled. One was filled by the mayor, a somewhat tall man who was beginning to bald.

_What was his name again? Mayor Unduly? Mayor Unmoody?_ Ichigo had never really been very good with names, and the man was so mild in personality that Ichigo had simply never taken an interest in him.

_I believe it is Mayor Undersee,_ supplied Zangetsu. The other chair was filled with a green clad monstrosity of a woman with pink hair and an artificially white and toothy smile. There was something about her that rubbed him the wrong way. In fact, _everything_ about her rubbed him the wrong way, all the way from her make-up caked face to her gigantic earrings to her unnaturally cheerful demeanor.

The woman and Mayor Undersee were murmuring about something quietly and shooting quick glances at the empty seat in concern. The town clock's bell rung in the distance, signaling the time as two o'clock.

Undersee stepped up to the podium and began to read a scripted speech that was written who-knows-how-long ago. It was a painfully obvious propaganda rant that looked on the Capital with rose-colored glasses and put down the districts whenever possible. It spoke of war and natural disasters and rising sea-levels in a long monotonous list before beginning to talk about the Dark Days. The Dark Days were a time when the districts staged an uprising against the Capital. The end was disastrous, twelve of the districts were beaten into submission, and the thirteenth was completely annihilated. Then, to rub their defeat in their noses, the Capital created the Treaty of Treason. The Treaty of Treason established new laws to 'guarantee peace' and instated the Hunger Games. Each year, as the townspeople know all too well, one girl and one boy from each district were chosen through the process of the Reaping to fight each other in a gladiatorial deathmatch. Twenty four children entered the arena, but only one left it. The entire speech was essentially one gigantic guilt trip from Ichigo's perspective. He could tell that it was written exclusively to manipulate the people of the districts and keep them in line. After the speech was over, Undersee read the names of the previous victors of the Games, of which District 12 had had exactly two. One victor was dead and the other was Heymitch Abernathy. The Mayor had just finished saying Heymitch's name when the man himself stumbled on to the stage in all his blond haired, grey eyed, and apparently very drunk glory. He seemed familiar to Ichigo, but he couldn't quite place it. Abernathy's entrance was hailed by polite applause, which seemed to confuse him. He stumbled his way over to the make-up monster to attempt to give her big hug, a move that was promptly fended off by a hand to the face courtesy of the now very flustered woman. The mayor, now eager to move on and minimize district 12's embarrassment, introduced the make-up plastered woman as Effie Trinket. Happy to have an excuse to escape Heymitch's drunk affections, Effie trotted up to the podium to deliver her signature catch-phrase,

"Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be _ever_ in your favor!" Ichigo noticed that her curly pinkish-white hair had shifted slightly to the right following Heymitch's unwelcome affections, revealing that it was a wig. She continued on to gush about how much of an honor it was to be here in district 12. It was obvious to most though that in truth she desperately wanted to be moved to a district with a victor that _didn't_ try to hug her on sight. Ichigo wandered briefly how many times his own name was entered into the reaping. He had insisted that if the Mellark family had to get a tesserae of grain and oil, that he be the one who entered his name the extra time that was required. He hadn't kept track because he didn't see the point. If he had to enter his name extra times he would do so without any hesitation. If his name got drawn, then there was nothing he could do, even if he knew how many times it was entered.

"Ladies first!" Came Effie's cry as she plunged her hand deep into the glass ball full of all of the girl's names.

_Ladies first… how morbid,_ Ichigo thought as he listened carefully for the name that had yet to be called.

_Indeed…_Zangetsu agreed.

Even as bad with names as he was, Ichigo always made a point to remember the names of all the tributes as a sign of respect for those who were forced to die just to maintain the district's rocky political standing with the capital.

Effie made a big show of rummaging through the glass ball to pick out a name, making sure to pause for dramatic effect before settling on a folded piece of paper and pulling it from the globe. She unfolded it and, in a clear voice, called out, "Primrose Everdeen!" Ichigo was committing the unfortunate girl's name to memory when he felt his breath catch.

Everdeen… there was a girl in his class at school named Everdeen, the same girl that he had seen entering the forest earlier that day. But, what was her first name? He cursed his deficiency with names as he racked his brain for the name he was searching for. He decided that he would have to wait until the girl whose name had been called made her way up the center of the crowd. He had to crane his neck a little to see the girl, and when he saw that it wasn't the girl he was thinking of, he felt relief. Relief that he wouldn't have to watch someone he knew be murdered. And then immediately after, he felt guilt. The girl now making her way towards the platform was only twelve years old. It could have been either Yuzu or Karin up there, he realized. Little Primrose Everdeen could be someone's little sister or daughter, Just as loved by her family as Ichigo loved his sisters and even his new brothers.

"Prim!" A strangled cry came from the other side of the square, "Prim!" A path opened in the crowd and a girl that looked about sixteen years old rushed forward to pull Prim's arm and throw her behind her. Ichigo's eyes widened, it was the girl from earlier, the one who he remembered from his class.

"I volunteer!" she gasped, "I volunteer as tribute!" At that moment, Ichigo truly respected the brave girl that had decided to trade her life for her sister's. It was something that, if he had to, he would do in a heartbeat for either of his two older brothers. There was a scramble on the stage as Effie, the mayor, and Heymitch (more or less) scrambled to prepare for a volunteer, something that was almost unprecedented in district 12.

"Lovely!" Came Effie's typically cheerful response, "but I believe that there's a small matter of introducing the reaping winner and then asking for volunteers, and if one does not come forth then we, um…" she trailed off, unsure of what the next step was.

"What does it matter?" Mayor Undersee spoke up as he looked at the volunteer's face with a faint glimmer of recognition and sadness, "what does it matter? Let her come forward."

The girl from before, Prim, was now in hysterics and was hugging the volunteer with no apparent intention of letting go "No, Katniss! NO! You can't go!"

"Prim, let go," the volunteer replied harshly, and Ichigo knew she was holding back her tears. A boy from the section of crowd that Ichigo occupied, moved forward and said something to her before picking up Prim and taking her off. Ichigo assumed that he took her to her mother or father. The tribute girl watched him briefly before making her way up the steps up to the stage.

"Well, bravo!" Effie practically gushed. Ichigo felt sick, the woman was _actually_ taking pleasure in the anguish in a family being torn apart, and viewing it as excitement. It disgusted him. "That's the spirit of the games!" She continued, oblivious to the daggers that Ichigo was glaring at her. "What's your name?" At this, the volunteer swallowed hard and said, "Katniss Everdeen."

"I bet my buttons that was your sister. Don't want her to steal all the glory, do we? Come on, everybody! Let's give a big round of applause for our newest tribute!" The demon woman trilled. Silence reigned, not a single person clapped. Ichigo, while he felt that Katniss deserved something, didn't think that it would be right to clap. Instead, he touched the three middle fingers of his left hand to his mouth, and then extended it towards her. All around him, he saw people doing the same, a gesture of goodbye, love, and respect. Ichigo could see her beginning to lose her composure, her eyes watering slightly. Her savior comes in an unlikely form: Heymitch. He came staggering across the stage to throw a surprisingly muscular arm over her shoulder.

"Look at her. Look at this one!" He hollered, "I like her!" Ichigo could tell that Heymitch's scent was not a pleasant one, judging by the way Katniss's nose wrinkled. It was likely laced with alcohol and body odor. "Lots of…" he paused for a minute while he pondered a good word, "Spunk!" He cried triumphantly before adding, "More than you!" He released poor Katniss to charge up to a camera and repeat himself. "More than you!" Ichigo couldn't tell if he was addressing the camera directly, or if he was speaking through it to the Capitol. The hopelessly drunk man opened his mouth to continue, but before he was able to, he tripped off of the stage and knocked himself out. With the cameras briefly faced away from her, trying to catch every last moment of Heymitch's comedy skit, Katniss had just enough time to compose herself. Now that it was certain that Heymitch's little act was over, he was carried off in a stretcher while Effie Trinket began to push ahead with the reaping.

"What an exciting day!" She warbled as she tried and failed to inconspicuously straighten her wig, which had slipped further to the right to sit nearly on the side of her head. "But more excitement to come! It's time to choose our boy tribute!" She planted one hand on her wig in an attempt to keep it in place as she moved swiftly to the bowl that contained the boys' names. Reaching in quickly and forgetting to build tension, she grabbed the first slip of paper she felt.

_Please don't be Eptasi, please don't be Eptasi._ Ichigo thought as the woman flashed back to the podium and read the name. "Peeta Mellark!" Ichigo stiffened as he recognized the name as his own, the name given to him in this life.

_At least it's not Eptasi,_ he thought as he hardened his scowl to a mask, slipped his hands into his pockets, and strode up to the platform.

Katniss Everdeen had not had a good day. Of course, it wasn't like the day of the reaping was ever a good day, but this was almost up there with losing her father to the coal mines. First, Prim, dear, sweet Prim's name had been drawn. One name, amongst thousands, and it had still been drawn. She hadn't been able to stand by and watch while her sweet sister went to her doom. And now Peeta Mellark, the same Peeta that, when her father had died and she had been scavenging for food in empty trashcans, had given her food. He had burnt bread on purpose and faced his abusive mother's beating just so he could give it Katniss. That day he had stood in front of her, his face marked red where his mother had hit him, offering her two large and slightly burnt loafs of bread. Later when she had seen him at school his face was heavily swollen and his eye was black, a result of the beating he had received. Now, he walked up to the stage, scowling, eyes showing no fear. Katniss had had just enough time to hope that she wouldn't be the one to have to kill him when she felt his hand on her shoulder.

"I would have done the same," was all that he said before taking his place next to her. She wondered what he meant. Would he truly have volunteered if his brother was chosen instead? Or was he just trying to make an impression for the cameras? Looking at him, she truly couldn't tell, his face was a perfect mask. The Mayor began to read the Treaty of Treason, listing the laws that had went into effect right after the Dark Days. When the mayor finished reading, he motioned for Katniss and Ichigo to shake hands. She took the opportunity to really study him. He was almost six feet tall with brown eyes and orange hair. He was wearing lose blue jeans and a shirt that fell over his muscled chest in a way that Katniss might have found attractive if it weren't for the situation. Instead she just noted his fitness as something that may turn out to be a threat.

_Wait… orange hair? How is that even possible?_ Katniss wondered as she shook his hand. They turned back to the crowd as the anthem of Panem played, signaling the end of the reaping.

After the reaping, the guards that were standing nearby roughly pushed the two new tributes into the Justice Building. Ichigo mentally snorted at the irony of a place called the Justice Building being used for such a purpose. They were herded into an elevator and then into separate rooms furnished with velvet couches and thick carpets. There they waited for the allotted 'goodbye time' with their families to begin. His father came in to capture Ichigo in a crushing hug. He seemed to practically cling to Ichigo, not wanting his youngest son to go. His brothers came next, and it was obvious that Eptasi was holding back tears.

"I tried to volunteer like that girl did, I really did, but I couldn't work up enough courage. I'm sorry!" He said, collapsing to his knees in a bout of grief and guilt.

"It's alright," said Ichigo, comforting his brother with a hand on his shoulder, "it's not like I would have let you anyway."

"But…"

"No buts, now pull yourself together so I can see you smile before I go," said Ichigo."

"Alright," Eptasi said, composing himself slightly. Littora was somewhat better composed.

"Come back, alright?" He said stoically, "make sure you do."

"I will," was Ichigo's reply. He was surprised when both brothers tackled him simultaneously in a silent hug. "Fine, fine, I get it. I'm not planning on dying anytime soon." Ichigo finally had to push them away so he could turn to his mother and say, "I guess this is it for a while, Mother?"

"It seems so," she replied. A silence fell over the room, neither Ichigo nor his mother could think of anything to say to the other. Finally, Ichigo's mother broke the silence, saying, "maybe District 12 will finally have a winner. She's a survivor, that one." To his entire family's surprise, Ichigo snorted.

_Unsupportive to the last, _he thought.

"I'll miss you too, Mother," He said, chuckling bitterly. Then he walked up to his father to say, "Take care of that Primrose girl, ok? I want to make sure that Katniss's sacrifice isn't in vain. Let her know that too." He began to make his way to the door of the room when he saw that his time was nearly up. He stopped, "oh, and give that girl some cookies, she deserves it," he said before continuing on.

As soon as Ichigo left the room, he was again greeted by guards and then marched out behind the Justice building to a ridiculously shiny and colorful car. Ichigo assumed that it belonged to the Trinket Demon. The car took them to the district limit fence before driving along it. Ichigo looked through the fence, drinking in the scenery just in case he wouldn't have a chance to see it again. The drive was short and the car quickly pulled up to the train station. As soon as they got out of the car, they saw scores of reporters, flying cameras and TV screens supported by hovercraft. They were quickly mobbed as the reporters descended on the two tributes. Katniss saw herself on one of the many TV screens floating around and felt somewhat gratified to see that she looked almost bored, and also saw that her fellow tribute seemed to have perfected a look of his own. His scowl seemed to say '_get on with it, you're wasting my time_'. Katniss thought it was somewhat odd that a baker's son could so easily put on a mask like that. They continued their route through the media frenzy to the sleek, shiny train that would take them to the Capitol. When they reached the door that they would be entering the train through, they were stopped for pictures and a quick interview. Both Ichigo and Katniss avoided answering as many questions as they could. After a few minutes of the reporters and their cameras drinking in every inch of the tributes they could, the guards finally pushed back the crowd and released Ichigo and Katniss. Happy to have an escape at last, they boarded the train.

There it is.

This is my first attempt at uploading something to fanfiction, so let me know if I did anything wrong.

The name is also subject to change, so let me know if you have an idea.


	2. Chapter 2

**Here it is, chapter two. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and followed.**

**On the subject of reviews, I need them! Anything you have, even random sentences. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Hunger Games.**

* * *

The doors of the train closed behind Ichigo and Katniss and they felt the train lurch as it accelerated forward. Ichigo noticed that Katniss seemed unused to the speed. Effie, who had boarded at another entrance while Ichigo and Katniss were stopped by the Capitol's media onslaught, led them through a hallway and into separate rooms.

Finally alone, Ichigo took a minute to take in his surroundings. The room that he had just entered was about twice as big as the room he and his brothers shared at the bakery. To the right, in a corner, was a large and comfortable looking bed with a dresser next to it. To the left was a door that joined the room to a shower and bathroom area. Ichigo decided to make use of the shower, slipping out of his slightly ragged clothes and stepping into it. It had been (Literally) a life-time since Ichigo had last taken a warm shower, and it was relaxing and pleasant. He felt his usually tense muscles melting and a sense of calm washed over him. The showers back home were cold and infrequent, and this was a welcome change. After about thirty minutes of soaking, Ichigo stepped out of the small shower and dried himself off before walking over to the dresser and selecting a simple pair of jeans and a T-shirt to put on.

Deciding that there was nothing better to do, Ichigo stepped out of his room to go and wait for supper in the dining room. He was halfway through the small hallway when Heymitch tumbled into him drunkenly.

"Why're you in the way…" Heymitch mumbled to Ichigo, "don' you know I'm on my way to a nap?" The drunk didn't wait for an answer, instead he staggered into his room and closed his door behind him. As Ichigo watched the man go, he again felt the nagging feeling that he knew Heymitch from somewhere else. Sure, he had seen the drunk Hunger Games victor during previous reapings, but Ichigo felt like there was something else about him.

After racking his brain for the answer for a few minutes, he gave up with a cry of frustration and turned to find a seat in the dining room.

* * *

Ichigo hadn't thought about what he would do once he made it to the dining room, and he was starting to regret his decision. It had been nearly an hour and a half since he had stepped in to the small room, and not a single thing had happened.

_Where're Eptasi and Littora when you need them?_ He asked the world in general. The two had really grown on him and now he missed their company and playful banter. He was wondering how they were doing when the Trinket woman burst out of her quarters and hurried into the dining room.

"Excellent! You're already up!" She squawked, "just wait here while I get everyone else!"

_As if I have anywhere to go,_ Ichigo scoffed mentally. A moment later, Trinket returned with Katniss in tow. Katniss had chosen clothes that reminded Ichigo of what she had looked like earlier that day when she was heading out to the forest. _Wait, that was today?_ Ichigo thought. _It was, wasn't it,_ it was more of a realization than a question.

"Where's Heymitch?" Trinket asked brightly, interrupting Ichigo's thoughts.

"I ran into him in the hallway. He said he was heading for a nap," at least, Ichigo _assumed_ that was what Heymitch was doing. With him, he could just be drinking.

"Well," Effie said, some relief apparent in her voice, "it's been an exhausting day." Effie and Katniss sat down just as the first course of supper was delivered. The food was delicious and Ichigo found himself wolfing it down as quickly as he could. When he looked over in Katniss's direction, he could see her doing the same.

"Peeta?" Effie inquired halfway through the second course, "How do you get your hair such a beautiful shade of orange? It almost looks natural." Ichigo sighed.

_This is going to be a long night,_ he thought exasperatedly.

"That's because it _is_ natural," Ichigo snapped, a little louder than he had intended to.

"Oh," said Effie, taken aback, "well, it is a _wonderful_ color!"

_Wonderful color? Troublesome color. _Ichigo thought sourly.

The next course was a generous helping of mashed potatoes coupled with lamb chops.

"At least, you two have decent manners," Effie said after finishing a lamb chop and wiping her mouth, "the pair last year ate everything with their hands like a couple of savages," she continued dramatically, "it completely upset my digestion." Ichigo thought back to the previous year's tributes. They had been a scrawny duo that were both from the Seam, the poorest part of District 12 and the place that Ichigo remembered Katniss lived. It was unlikely that something as unimportant as the subject of silverware ever entered the discussion in their homes when there was food available.

Ichigo noticed that after Effie's comment on manners, Katniss put down her silverware and started to eat with her hands. Ichigo decided to join her in spiting Effie by dropping his own for and knife and tackling the next course, an assortment of cheese and fruit, unarmed. He and Katniss exchanged an amused look when Effie pursed her lips at them. Ichigo was slightly confused when Katniss broke the glance and ignored him for the rest of the meal.

* * *

After dinner, Ichigo and Katniss were lead into a new room to watch the recap of the day's reaping on a large flat-screen TV.

_There's gotta be a way to get everyone out, but how?_ He thought as he watched a boy with a crippled foot limp onto a stage in District 10, _and how am I going to save all these kids?_

_You will not be able to save them all, _Zangetsu reminded him, _some won't even want to be saved._

_But still…_ Ichigo trailed off as a young girl from District 11 with dark skin that reminded him of Prim and the brave sacrifice Katniss made to save her. Unlike District 12's case, though, nobody stepped forward for the girl. _I better find a way to access my power soon,_ Ichigo decided.

District 12 was next. The commentators briefly jabbered about the district's job like they thought that it was the first time the audience had even _heard_ of District 12. All the juicy bits were shown. Poor Prim's name was drawn as the commentators made light banter, Katniss stepped up and took her sisters place, and the crowd stayed silent while the commentators clapped lightly.

"Local customs can be so _charming_ sometimes," one of them said as the entire district saluted Katniss.

_Belittling us at any chance they get,_ Ichigo thought with disgust, as he watched the recording of Heymitch falling off the stage to the groans of the commentators. Effie made a disgruntled comment about Heymitch's 'televised behavior' as he was being taken away on a stretcher. Next Ichigo watched as his own name was called and he walked up scowling to the platform to put a hand briefly on Katniss's shoulder. His words to her were not heard.

"What's between those two, I wonder…" one commentator said conspiratorially. Ichigo had to resist the urge to face-palm.

_First Zangetsu, then Eptasi, and now these idiots? Who's next? Heymitch?_ He thought with frustration as the anthem played. As if on cue, Heymitch staggered into the room.

"I miss supper?" Was the question he asked before emptying the contents of his stomach on the carpet and falling into the puddle. At this, Effie gave a little squeak and rushed out of the room, carefully skirting the mess. Ichigo and Katniss stood for a moment, momentarily frozen by horror and disgust. Katniss moved forward, planning on helping carry their drunk mentor to his room, but Ichigo beat her to it, picking Heymitch up easily and throwing the man over his shoulders.

"I have him," Ichigo said when he saw her trying to help, "don't worry about it." Katniss followed him down the hall to Heymitch's room. When they reached the shower, Ichigo turned around and looked Katniss straight in the eye. "Go to bed, you look really tired," he said. She looked startled for a moment before murmuring something quietly, walking into her room, and closing the door behind her. Now satisfied that the girl was going to get some rest before they got to the Capitol, Ichigo turned to the unpleasant task at hand.

* * *

Peeta Mellark was a confusing person, Katniss thought as she sat in her room looking out the window. First he told her that he 'would've done the same' as her, and now he had just told her to get some rest while he cleaned Heymitch. Why was he so being so nice to her? Was he just trying to get Katniss to let her guard down? He was a baker's son, not exactly the hardest position, but at the same time he was able to put on that scowling mask with such ease. What kind of experiences did someone need to have to develop that kind of scowl?

_His mother beats him, is that it? If it is, just how hard does she hit?_ Katniss began to feel sorry for him. _NO! Not allowed! He's my enemy, he has to die so I can survive,_ she mentally shouted. Kind people were dangerous to Katniss in this situation. Katniss's plan to counteract kindness boiled down to this: ignore it completely. Her decision made, Katniss took the cookies that Mr. Mellark had given to her, and threw the entire bag out the window. The train was stopped for refueling and Katniss made the fatal mistake of looking where she was throwing. The bag had landed on a patch of dandelions. She was instantly reminded, once again, of her fellow tribute's kindness. She remembered seeing him at school, face bruised where his mother had hit him. When she turned away, she saw a dandelion, the first of the season, and feeling hope.

She was interrupted from her worries when she heard a sharp shout from somewhere in the train.

"GETABOSHI!?"

"ICHIGO!?"

_And now people are shouting gibberish,_ she thought as she went to find out what was happening.

* * *

Heymitch Abernathy felt almost sober. He hated the feeling.

"Can I go and get drunk again?" Heymitch asked.

"No." Came Ichigo's reply.

"Please?"

Heymitch was washing his face at a small sink next to the shower in his room.

_There's something about him that I recognize,_ Heymitch thought. _Ah well, nothing a good bottle of something strong won't get rid of._ He turned around to find something to drink and found himself face-to-face with Ichigo. The boy's face was solidly set into a scowl and he opened his mouth to say something. Then, his mouth closed again briefly and his eyes shot wide open in recognition.

"GETABOOSHI!?"

_What's that?_ Heymitch thought briefly before it hit him, _oh, right…_

The niggling feeling that had been bothering him suddenly expanded, filling his mind. It kept expanding until it broke out into realization. all the memories from Heymitch's past life flooded his mind. He reeled from the shock, staggering backwards.

"ICHIGO!?"

* * *

The scene that Katniss was greeted with when she found the source of the noise was bizarre, to say the least. Inside the room she had entered was Heymitch, but not the Heymitch she knew. No, this Heymitch stood with a look of shock on his face for a few seconds before leaning against the doorway to the bathroom with a sense of nonchalant poise and a vague, but somehow knowing, smile. The Not-Heymitch opened his mouth and said,

"Well, well, if it isn't Ichigo." Instead of the harsh rasp that Katniss had come to expect from him, he spoke in an amiable and teasing tone. "It's been a long time."

"What the hell's going on?" Peeta asked, mirroring Katniss's sentiment exactly. "Why are you here? How?"

_Wait, where does Peeta know Heymitch from?_ Katniss thought, feeling thoroughly confused.

"Don't ask me, I'm just a humble shop-keeper, what would I know about reincarnation?" The not-Heymitch said, holding his hands up in front of him.

_Reincarnation?_ Katniss thought, _seriously, what?_

"That means you _defiantly_ know something!" Peeta (who apparently was also Ichigo,) shouted at the not-Heymitch, grabbing the blonde's arm and yanking him out of the room.

Katniss decided that she would just sit down and wait until things started making sense again.

* * *

"Explain," Ichigo said as he threw one 'humble shop-keeper' on the bed in his room and closing the door.

"But Ichigo, where's the fun in that?"

"Just do it."

"Fine, party pooper," Kisuke pouted. "Let me think… oh! Right. When a particularly powerful being dies, such as a high-ranking shinigami, they are reincarnated as a human."

"You died then?" Ichigo asked.

"Yep, that sealing kidou required that I give my life after it activated." Urahara replied cheerfully.

"Wait, why are you so old?" Ichigo said, "I died before you did."

"The time it takes for someone to be reincarnated seems quite random, actually. It's just sheer dumb luck that we met after being reincarnated." Urahara explained

"Why were you so pathetic before just now?"

"I still hadn't recovered my memories. Usually, reincarnated people don't ever regain memory of their past life, but seeing someone from your past life generally triggers it. Who'd you see?"

"No one, I recovered my memories after seeing…" Ichigo paused for a second, "someone… lose a parent."

"So it reminded you of losing your own."

"I think so."

"That would do it."

There was silence for a moment.

"Are we ever going to be able to get access to our power?" Ichigo asked.

"I'm not sure about that one, have you been able to talk to Zangetsu?"

"Yeah, I have."

"That's good. Have you been able to materialize him?"

"No, but I've tried."

"Perhaps I can figure out some way to make something like a gigai for Zangetsu and Benihime to help us use our powers while still in our bodies."

"Benihime?" Asked Ichigo, who was slightly confused.

"My zanpakuto."

"Oh."

"In the mean-time, we have the whole 'Hunger Games' thing to survive, right?"

"…right"

"I probably won't be able to invent a way to give our zanpakutos physical form before you get to the arena, so you'll need sponsors to help send it down once it's ready."

"And your point is…?"

"You need an angle, some way to woo the Capitol people into giving you care packages and the like while you're in the arena. Maybe something cute."

"Me? Cute? I don't think the alcohol has quite worn off yet, Getaboshi."

"No, not you _alone_. I'm thinking something along the lines of star-crossed lovers."

"Lovers? Who am I gonna…" Ichigo trailed off, realization donning, "No! Nonononononono! Not you too."

"Katniss Everdeen."

"Why her?" Cried Ichigo.

"Because it's convenient."

"Damn it, Getaboshi."

* * *

Taptaptap…

"Mmmph…"

Taptaptap.

Pale grey morning light filtered in through a window in Katniss's room as she woke up and instantly tried to find sleep again.

"Up, up, up! It's going to be a big, big, big day!" Effie's muffled voice pierced through the air, somehow managing to be even more annoying than her obnoxious tapping.

_What happened last night anyway?_ Katniss asked herself as she slipped on the cloths she had worn the day before. _Oh right, that._ She suddenly remembered the end of the previous evening. _It must have been a dream._ Katniss decided._ That was too bizarre to have actually happened. I mean, the whole 'reincarnation' thing was a dead giveaway._

Katniss ran her finger over the small, golden bauble that the daughter of the mayor of District 12 gave her. It was a figure of a small bird, framed by a ring. The bird was a Mocking-jay, a bird that would sing back what a person sang to it. It was a reminder of her father, who loved the strange birds.

Katniss stepped out of her room and almost immediately hat to dodge a huffy Effie as she strode past with a cup of black coffee in her hand.

_What's got her in such a bad mood?_ Katniss wondered as she stepped into the dining car.

The scene she was greeted with was just as bizarre as the one she was greeted with last night.

Katniss stared in horror as Peeta Mellark the orange-haired baker's son held Heymitch in a headlock, giving the blonde a noogie.

"OWOWOW! Ichigo! That hurts!" Katniss paled further when she heard Heymitch's voice. It was the voice of the person she had subconsciously dubbed not-Heymitch.

_I have enough crazy in my life without this piling on to it._ She thought miserably.

"Oh, it's… Ichigo, what was her name again?"

"Ask her yourself, idiot."

"You won't let me go."

"oh, right."

Not-Heymitch, now that he was free from Peeta's noogie, strode up and offered a hand to Katniss.

"My name is Kisuke Urahara, What's yours?"

"K-Katniss Everdeen?" Katniss offered, still not quite caught up with the current situation.

"Have a seat, we have a lot to discuss." Kisuke dropped his hand when he saw that Katniss wasn't going to shake.

Katniss sat down and Peeta pushed a mug of something that looked like coffee in front of her.

"It's hot chocolate," Peeta said. "It's sweet," he added when he saw her blank look.

When Katniss took a tentative sip, she discovered that he was right. A warm feeling filled her and calmed her as she quickly took a much larger draft of the hot chocolate.

"Kisuke…" she said now that she was feeling more composed, "weren't you Heymitch?"

"That's right," the newly named Kisuke said happily. "But now I'm Kisuke. And this," he continued, gesturing to Peeta, "is Ichigo." Katniss looked at 'Ichigo' for some sign that Heymitch was just playing an elaborate practical joke. Instead, he nodded.

"Now that we're all introduced, let's get down to business." Kisuke said as he took a seat of his own and started to eat vigorously.

They ate in silence for a while, and Katniss first finished her hot chocolate before digging into the meal. She watched with growing irritation as Kisuke cheerfully stuffed his face. The man's demeanor reminded her of the way people from the Capitol acted.

It was when he started to make small-talk about the weather that she snapped, lunging forward with a knife with the intent to stab it between the annoyingly smug man's fingers. The plan was to make an impression and to show that she meant business. Katniss was completely taken by surprise when Kisuke grabbed the knife by the blade with one hand, and her wrist in the other.

"Don't get too hasty," Kisuke said, his voice now very serious, "Know your opponent's strength before you attack." With a quick and almost painful squeeze, he released Katniss's arm. "We'll be arriving soon, so we don't have enough time to talk anyway." Kisuke cut her off, pointing to a window where the mountains that surrounded the Capitol were indeed visible. "Try not to resist what the stylists do with you, it's better just to trust them."

"But-" Katniss began.

"No buts, I'll see you after the stylists are done with you," Kisuke cut her off again, before stepping out of the car. Just as Kisuke closed the door behind him, the train entered a tunnel and the car went completely dark.

"Theatrics," Ichigo scoffed.

"That was on purpose?" Katniss asked.

"He never misses a chance."

Silence filled the compartment, making both tributes somewhat uncomfortable.

Just as Katniss was about to open her mouth to break the silence, light filled the compartment.

"Almost there," Ichigo said.

* * *

Ichigo and Katniss moved to the window as soon as the train stopped to look at the spectacle that was called the Capitol.

The Capitol was impressive, Ichigo had to give it that. The skyline was almost entirely filled with massive skyscrapers, partially blotting out the sun. Ichigo thought it was what Las Noches would look like if someone covered every inch of it with neon paint and then filled it with equally colorful people. Ichigo looked out at the crowd that had gathered around the station and began to feel slightly sick.

_Such sick people._ He thought to himself as he moved away from the window and further into the train.

"Pretty hard to look at, huh?" Katniss said after she followed him.

"Mentally scarring."

* * *

_Ow…._ Ichigo thought.

He had just spent the last few hours being plucked, preened, and even skinned. _All in the name of fashion,_ he thought sourly.

"Now, on to the business of your outfit," Ichigo's stylist, Portia, said after they finished lunch. The over-the-top woman had burst into the room that Ichigo had been being 'remade' in and promptly began to examine his naked body, much to his embarrassment.

_Why couldn't they match the gender of the stylist to the tribute?_ Ichigo had thought.

"We, that is of course Cinna and I, are thinking about dressing you and Peeta in complimentary costumes."

"I'm not going out there in the nude, if that's what you're planning," Ichigo interrupted, remembering a Hunger Games from a few years back.

"Of course not!" Portia cried, sounding hurt, "wherever did you get that idea?" She didn't wait for an answer before barreling on. "Are you, by any chance, afraid of fire?"

_This does not look good._

* * *

An hour later, Ichigo and Katniss stood in a chariot wearing matching black skin-tight suits waiting to be wheeled out to the massive crowd that had gathered in the square.

"What you think?" Ichigo heard Katniss whisper to him. "About the fire?"

"I'm not sure."

"Well, can you rip my cape off if the fire starts burning?"

"Sure."

"Thanks," Katniss said, looking relieved. "Isn't 'Kisuke'," Katniss said, air quoting the name, "supposed to protect us from this sort of thing?"

"If we needed protecting, he would have already made his move."

"If you say so."

Ichigo and Katniss felt the chariot begin to move as the music started to play. One by one, the chariots rolled out to be displayed for the cameras. Cinna appeared holding a burning torch just as the chariot from District 11 made its way out. Ichigo saw Katniss tense when Cinna ignited their costumes, and then relax again when all she felt was a faint tickling sensation.

She looked stunning, standing there engulfed in flame.

"It works," said Cinna with a sigh of relief. Ichigo felt a vain in his forehead bulge.

"You mean you weren't sure?" Said Ichigo. Cinna ignored him. The stylist reached his hand up to gently tuck it under Katniss's chin.

"Remember, heads high. Smiles. They're going to love you!" Said Cinna. "Oh, one last thing. Heymitch had the idea to have you two hold hands."

_Oh, right. 'Star-crossed lovers'_ Ichigo thought, remembering Kisuke's words from the day before. He reached out for Katniss's hand. Katniss initially pulled away, but then allowed him to hold her hand. _Here we go,_ Ichigo thought.

Ichigo noticed that the roar of the crowd got slightly louder when people saw Katniss and him come out of the tunnel. _Time to show off for the sponsors._

The District 12 chariot appeared to be quite the attention getter, Ichigo noted with some satisfaction. He also noted that Katniss beside him seemed to be getting into the spirit of it, sometimes even blowing kisses. Huge clumps of people reached up with their multi-colored arms to attempt to capture them.

_Quite detached, aren't they?_ Zangetsu said as he surfaced to Ichigo's outer consciousness.

_Yes, very,_ Ichigo agreed as he looked at a particularly over-done citizen of the Capitol.

_You had better tell Katniss to loosen her grip on your hand before she does permanent damage._

_Is that what brought you up?_ Ichigo asked.

_Yes._

"Uh, Katniss?" Ichigo said through the side of his mouth.

"Yeah?" Katniss replied.

"Can you stop crushing my hand now?" Ichigo asked.

"Oh! Sorry." Katniss said, loosening her grip slightly. She hadn't realized how hard she was squeezing.

The chariots pulled up to the president's mansion, District 12's coming to a stop just as the opening music came to a conclusion. Above them President Snow stood up and gave a speech, officially welcoming the tributes to the Capitol.

Ichigo noticed that the cameras that flitted around the area capturing footage of the tributes spent considerably longer flitting around the chariot that he and Katniss occupied.

After the president's speech, the chariots circled the plaza in front of his mansion one at a time before entering the Training Center.

As the doors of the Training Center closed behind them, stylists and prep teams flooded the area, along with a loud chattering sound. It took a minute for Ichigo to realize that the chattering was coming from the prep teams.

_Do human voices even go that high?_ He asked himself.

_It seems so._ Zangetsu replied. _If you are going to go along with Kisuke's plan, you might want to start flirting with Katniss._

Ichigo felt himself blush. _I don't know how._

_Complement her,_

"Katniss?" Ichigo said

"Yeah?"

"Uh… um…" Ichigo stuttered, "Flames suit you."

Katniss felt a faint blush paint her cheeks.

_That sucked, didn't it?_

_That actually wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. _

"Thanks," Katniss replied, "It matches your hair. The flames, I mean." Now it was Ichigo's turn to blush.

"Yeah, I guess it does," Ichigo said, running his hand through his hair. Ichigo noticed that Katniss was now closer then he felt was comfortable.

_Zangetsu?_ Thought Ichigo as he started to panic. _What do I do?_ There was no response. Then Katniss lunged forward and kissed him on the cheek.

_How are you going to handle this if you can't even take a kiss to the cheek?_ Zangetsu said exasperatedly.

* * *

The Training Center is a large building that has a tower specifically built for the tributes and their teams. One floor per district. Ichigo watched through the crystal walls of the elevator that was taking him, Katniss, and Effie up to their floor as the ground fell below him. Effie was even bubblier than she usually was, and was currently going on about how she had been carting Ichigo and Katniss around to rich potential sponsors all day.

"I've been very mysterious, though," she said as she squinted her eyes conspiratorially, "because, of course, Heymitch hasn't bothered to tell me your strategies. But I've done the best with what I had to work with. How Katniss sacrificed herself for her sister. How you've both successfully to overcome the barbarism of your district."

Ichigo mentally scoffed.

_Barbarism? How ironic._ He thought.

"Everyone has their reservations, naturally. You being from the coal district. But I said, and this was very clever of me, I said, 'Well, if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls!'"

Ichigo could hear Zangetsu groan in his head while Katniss responded with somewhat fake enthusiasm.

"Unfortunately, I can't seal the sponsor deals for you. Only Heymitch can do that." Effie said grimly. "Perhaps now with his sudden change in mood, it will be easier to get him to the table."

Effie's chatter easily filled the space of time it took for them to reach their quarters, and Ichigo welcomed the freedom from her noise as he stepped into his luxurious room.

Buttons covered almost every object in the room, and Ichigo decided to completely ignore as many as he possibly could. He had had enough of Kisuke's inventions to be weary.

_Might as well take a shower,_ Ichigo thought.

The shower was cylindrical in shape, with nozzles of various sizes and shapes covering the walls. Inside the shower, he was faced with a panel covered in even _more_ buttons.

_Glorious…_ was Ichigo's thought as he eyed the panel, _which one turns on the hot water?_

_Perhaps we should just press one to find out,_ Zangetsu suggested wearily.

_Fine, but I'm blaming you for whatever happens,_ Ichigo thought.

He reached out and pressed a few buttons experimentally and fearing the worst. He was not disappointed.

"OW, OW, OW!" He shouted as he was assaulted by scalding hot water and strawberry shampoo. "YOUR FAULT, ZANGETSU. YOUR FAULT!" Moving quickly, he jumped out of the shower. "Damn Capital, can't even make a decent shower." He grabbed a towel that was hanging nearby and dried himself off.

He searched the dresser for something that would feel like a shihakusho. There was, of course, nothing even close to it available.

Damn, _those things are comfortable too._

Ichigo spent the rest of his time before dinner laying on the bed and resting.

It was only when Effie came to knock on his door to call him for dinner that he realized just how hungry he was. Effie led him to a balcony where Cinna and Portia were already waiting. Effie went back inside to fetch Katniss and Ichigo was left alone with the stylists.

"You were excellent out there, Peeta," Portia gushed.

"You have a great expression too," Cinna added, "Is that hair natural?"

"Yes," Ichigo said curtly. Cinna, sensing that Ichigo wasn't open to discussion about it, decided to press on.

"Heymitch is joining us."

"Good, I need to speak to him."

"You would, wouldn't you," Portia said, trying to keep the conversation going, "he _is_ your mentor, after all."

The conversation was saved when Effie returned with Katniss. Katniss was slightly better at talking with the stylists and Effie's chatter filled the rest of the space. Ichigo had to wave a white-clad young man when he tried to offer Ichigo wine, but other than that, Ichigo's dinner was pleasant. That is, until the food arrived along with Kisuke. The former shop-keeper had somehow found an outfit that matched the one he wore in his previous life perfectly, right down to the bucket-shaped hat.

"Hello everyone, I'm here!"

"Just sit down, Getaboshi."

"You can be so cold sometimes, Ichigo."

Effie, Portia and Cinna exchanged confused looks as Kisuke sat down.

"Yes, well…" Effie trailed off, somehow at a loss for words.

"Now, let's discuss out strengths and weakness', shall we," Kisuke barreled on ahead, "you first Ichigo."

"You already know mine."

"They don't"

Ichigo sighed.

"Hand-to-hand combat, swordsmanship, and baking."

"There, now that wasn't so hard, was it?" Kisuke teased. "Now you, Katniss." It took a second for Katniss to realize that Kisuke had addressed her.

"Uh… I don't really have any." She said.

"Yes you do," Ichigo said unexpectedly, "Archery. My dad buys your squirrels."

"I'm not very good though…"

"Yes," Ichigo interrupted, "yes you are. I've seen the squirrels, every one was killed by an arrow to the eye."

"Good to know," said Kisuke. "Next, we need sponsors, does anybody have any Ideas for that?"

"I've already spent most of the day telling people about these two," Effie pouted, "What have you been doing all day? Drinking the sponsors into giving us their support?"

"As a matter of fact, I've been working on creating things that will be helpful to send down during the Games." Kisuke said, acting hurt.

"Like what?" Effie shot back with suspicion.

"A sword for Ichigo."

"Who is Ichigo?" Cinna asked, "You keep talking about him and we don't know who he is."

"He's right in front of you, with the orange hair," Kisuke replied, pointing to Ichigo.

"His name is Peeta, you drunk buffoon!" Effie said, apparently having had enough of Kisuke's attitude. "Isn't that right?" She continued, facing Ichigo.

"Either one is fine, I answer to both," Ichigo said. Effie gave up and stormed huffily into the tower.

_Apparently that wasn't the right thing to say._ Ichigo thought as he watched the woman's retreating back.

"Oh well, I suppose we'll just have to continue without her." Kisuke said as he leaned back into his chair. "Now then, are there any more ideas?" He asked. There was no answer. "Alright then…"

"Stop stalling," Ichigo said.

"There you go again, Ichigo. So cold." Said Kisuke. "To get sponsors on our side, we need to have something that they like. Cute things are likable, so we'll go with that."

"What do you have in mind?" Cinna asked.

"Star-crossed lovers."

Katniss groaned. Ichigo silently joined her.

"I'll give you two the details tomorrow. Meeting, adjourned!"

With that, Kisuke stood up and exited the balcony, leaving the somewhat shell-shocked Capitol dwellers and Katniss behind.

"Swords?" Katniss asked.

"You'll see." Ichigo replied, standing up. "Tomorrow."

* * *

**Thanks for reading, and again, don't forget to review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's chapter three. Please review, it inspires me to write faster.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger games or Bleach.**

* * *

"Ichigo…"

A far-off voice was interrupting Ichigo's sleep.

"Ichigo…"

Ichigo decided to ignore it for a little while longer. His plan would have worked better if the interrupting voice hadn't gotten a whole lot closer and breathed, "Aizen is coming…" down his neck.

"AHHHH… I'm up, I'm up! Where is he?" Ichigo cried, jumping instantly to his feet.

"You're finally awake!" Said Kisuke, who was apparently the one who had been whispering to him.

"Damn it, Getaboshi…"

"Anyway, now that you're awake, put this on," Kisuke said cheerfully, holding out a black bundle of cloth. "I made it with Cinna and Portia." Ichigo took the cloth and unfolded it. As he did, two sandals made out of straw fell to the floor. Ichigo's mounting suspicions were confirmed when the rest of the cloth unfolded into a shihakusho.

_Yes!_ Ichigo silently cheered. He was happy to finally find something comfortable in the Capitol. He wasn't about to let it show though.

"How did you get them to agree to helping you make this?" Ichigo asked.

"I said that it was part of your training," replied Kisuke.

"Is that how you got that ridiculous hat?"

"It's not ridiculous! It's fashionable," said Kisuke, "I'm disappointed in your sense of style."

"Whatever you say," Ichigo said with some exasperation. "Can you go outside so I can change now?"

'I'll see you in the dining room," Kisuke said as he exited and closed the door behind him.

* * *

Ichigo made his way down to the dining room after dressing and found Kisuke and Katniss sitting at opposite ends of the table and eating breakfast.

"Ah, Ichigo, there you are," Kisuke said when he saw Ichigo, "come and join us."

Ichigo moved around the table gathering various breakfast foods. When he finished, he sat down between Kisuke and Katniss and began to eat.

"What's up with that outfit?" Katniss asked Ichigo as she dipped a breakfast roll in hot chocolate.

"Getaboshi got the stylists to make it for me."

"I've never seen that style before, where's it from?"

"Uh…" Ichigo trailed off, trying to think of something. He glanced over to Kisuke, hoping that he would interject to save him, but the man appeared to be completely focused on his pancakes.

"Yes?"

"Nowhere." Ichigo concluded, giving up.

_You could've asked me for ideas,_ said Zangetsu.

_Whatever…_

"Now, Katniss. I want you to avoid the archery station in the training grounds if possible." Said Kisuke.

"Why? That's my 'special skill', right?"

"Because you may need the element of surprise later."

"And what about Ichigo?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Why not?"

"You'll see."

The meal continued in silence as each person ate. When Kisuke finished, he stood up.

"It's almost 10 o'clock. Katniss, I have something for you to put on," he said, grabbing her by the arm and leading her away.

Ichigo decided not to follow.

* * *

_What the hell is this thing, anyway?_ Katniss thought as she struggled to put on the strange robe thing that Kisuke gave her. The eccentric man had written detailed instructions, but it was still tough to put them on.

"How are you doing in there?" Kisuke called through the door to Katniss's room. "Do you want me to help you?"

"NO!" Katniss cried immediately. "I'm fine."

"Just let me know."

After spending the next ten minutes continuing to struggle with the unruly clothes, Katniss stood in front of a mirror, admiring the finished product. She had to admit that while it was outlandish in design, it was quite comfortable. She opened the door to her room to find that Kisuke was still waiting for her.

"Finally done?"

"Yes."

"Good, follow me."

They walked back into the dining room to find Ichigo and Effie already waiting.

"Shall we go?" Kisuke asked.

They piled into the elevator and Effie pushed a button, sending them down to the training level.

* * *

At the end of the short elevator ride down to the training level, the doors opened to reveal a huge gymnasium filled with obstacle courses and weapons of all descriptions, some real, some made of wood for training purposes. In the middle, all the other tributes stood in a circle around a tall, athletic woman. Ichigo cast his glance across the weapons for something that he could use as a substitute for Zangetsu. He saw a single broadsword that came somewhat close in length, and decided that once they got to the station he would make use of it. He also noticed that he and Katniss were the only pair that was dressed alike. They were stopped for a minute while the symbol for District 12 was pinned on their backs before they were allowed to join the others. Kisuke held Ichigo back briefly to say,

"Remember, Katniss needs this training period more than you, so just stick with her."

"Alright, but I need a good spar at some point. Promise me that."

"Sure, maybe tonight. I have to go back now, they won't let me stay down here."

"Ok."

Ichigo went on to join Katniss in the circle. The woman in the centers, who Ichigo learned was named Atala, began to brief the tributes on the use of the training room. Ichigo and Katniss's outfits seemed to be drawing a fair amount of attention from the other tributes, including one tribute who made a quick jibe about them. After her speech was over, the tributes dispersed and went to the various training areas. Ichigo saw that the tributes that were from the richer districts immediately made their ways to the stations for weapons and hand-to-hand combat.

"Where to first?" Ichigo asked, nudging Katniss.

"Knot tying?" Katniss suggested.

"I was asking you."

Katniss took that as a yes and they went over to a station run by a man who seemed delighted just to have visitors.

"Wonderful! Wonderful, how about this?" He said, tying a knot with a flourish. The man looked somewhat surprised when Katniss duplicated the knot with ease. After a few more knots, it was clear that Katniss already knew something about them, so the man moved on to showing them a simple snare. They spent an hour there, learning the art of stringing people up in trees until they had it mastered. Next, they moved on to a station that taught camouflage. Neither Katniss nor Ichigo were very good at it, and they moved on to the next station quickly. Ichigo noticed that the Gamemakers had arrived. There were about twenty of them, wearing purple robes and equipped with clipboards. They sat at a special elevated dining table that ran along the sides of the room, where they could peer down at the tributes and occasionally take notes.

The next station was hand-to-hand combat. There stood an athletic and cocky-looking man whose hair was a deep azure color.

"Hey you!" The man called when he spotted Ichigo, "orange hair!"

"Yeah?" Ichigo replied, trying hard not to sock the man in the face for being so annoying.

"My name is Marlow, it's nice to meet you." Marlow said, offering a hand. When Ichigo attempted to shake his hand, Marlow drew his hand back. "Too slow! With reflexes like that, you'll never survive!" He said brightly. "Now, let's see what you've got!" He continued, beckoning theatrically.

Katniss was curious about what would happen next. She remembered that Ichigo had said that his skills included hand-to-hand combat the night before, and she was curious to see what he meant.

"Come on now, put em' up!" Marlow said jokingly, hopping from foot to foot.

"Your move." Ichigo said simply.

"Have it your way then." Marlow said. He charged, throwing a punch that almost blurred. Both he and Katniss were surprised when Ichigo caught the fist with one hand and proceeded to quickly jab Marlow in the stomach, knocking the wind out of the cocky instructor.

"Good one, caught me off guard for a second there," Marlow panted, only slightly daunted.

"Are you ready for a _real_ spar now?" Ichigo asked, now sounding slightly annoyed.

"You haven't seen anything yet, kid!" Marlow said, lifting his fists once more. Ichigo decided that it was his turn to attack now. He surged forward, raining a flurry of incredibly fast blows down on the instructor. When he saw that he wasn't going to be able to get a decent spar out of the instructor, Ichigo backed up slightly before planting a solid kick to the Marlow's chest and sending him crashing down to the floor. Now every pair of eyes in the room were trained intently on Ichigo, and the sound of pens furiously scribbling on paper could be heard from the Gamemakers as they took note of what had just happened.

"Sorry," Ichigo said, bending down next to the beaten and humiliated instructor, "I expected more of a challenge." He cast a glance around the room, and wherever his eyes fell, people subconsciously shrunk away from him.

Katniss was stunned. She had been expecting Ichigo to be good, but defeating the Capitol's trained instructor so easily, that was out of anything she could have possibly imagined.

_Wait, didn't he also say something about swords?_ Katniss thought.

"Ha!" A new voice broke the silence, "what's everyone so amazed by? Marlow is weak, I'm not surprised that someone beat him."

The source was a man standing at the swordsmanship station, who was wearing a grin that somehow managed to look even cockier than Marlow. He was holding a simple short wooden sword that seemed to clash with his overall gaudy appearance.

"Come over here and let me show you how a real warrior fights!"

"Who are you?" Ichigo said as he went to the station to face his new challenger.

"My name is Agron!"

"So, you decided to face your defeat like a man, eh?" Agron taunted. Ichigo ignored him, instead walking to the weapon that he had spotted when he entered the training area. It was a one-sided training sword with a broad blade, shorter by a foot than Zangetsu. It felt a little bit strange, but it would do.

"Is this alright?" Ichigo asked.

"Look at this! He doesn't even know what weapon he wants!"

"I was asking your permission, you idiot." Ichigo replied, clenching his teeth.

"Ooooh, how scary." Agron mocked, "I'm shaking already."

_Zangetsu, I'm not sure if I'll be able to stop myself from killing this guy, can you make sure to stop me if I try?_ Ichigo thought.

_I will do my best._

_Good enough._

"To the center, then." Agron said.

They stood in the center, a few feet away, sizing each other up.

"You do know that that's a two-handed sword, right?" Agron said, starting to get irritated by Ichigo's confidence.

"Not for me."

"Ha! What a joke!" Said Agron.

They stood for a minute, waiting for each other to make a move. Not a noise could be heard, except the susurration of the Gamemakers' pens as they jotted down note after note. The silence continued until one of the Gamemakers dropped a pen, and the resulting click sent Ichigo and his opponent into action.

The sound of their swords clashing filled the air as the two swordsmen felt each other out. Ichigo was surprised to find that, while Agron's movements were somewhat slow, his boasting was not entirely hot air.

Agron broke away, now breathing quite heavily. He was somewhat unnerved to see that Ichigo was still breathing at a normal pace.

_How is he keeping up with me while using that huge sword?_ Agron thought.

"What's wrong?" Ichigo asked loudly.

"Nothing!" Agron shouted defiantly.

"Then come," Ichigo said, readying his sword.

Agron took Ichigo's invitation, charging him and making a powerful sweep from above. Ichigo easily brought up his blade to block and then stabbed forward, pushing Agron back. Ichigo took advantage of his opponent's imbalance to rush forward with a series of quick stabs that Agron failed to block, before planting a foot on the man's chest and pinning him to the ground.

"I win," said Ichigo, holding the tip of his sword to the man's throat.

"Not yet!" Agron cried as he twisted out from under Ichigo's foot and swinging at his legs. Ichigo responded by blocking the attack and hitting Agron on the head with the flat of his blade, knocking him out.

_Do you think I overdid it?_ Ichigo asked Zangetsu.

_I think you may have._

_Damn it._

* * *

There was an awkward silence as people gawked at Ichigo and the knocked-out swordsmanship instructor, until Atala took control of the situation. She called in a stretcher for Agron and told the tributes to get back to their stations if they wanted to survive. Ichigo awkwardly continued to accompany Katniss as she went around the room, making use of the stations. She also seemed to have taken Kisuke's advice, and was avoiding the archery station.

"You should stop following me around," she said with annoyance when Ichigo followed her to the station on edible plants.

"I can't, Getaboshi's orders."

"Why?"

"Don't ask me."

"Then leave me alone!"

"Fine, we'll talk to Haymitch after this is over and ask him why."

Ichigo went to the side of the room and sat down with his back to the wall and watched the other tributes.

Most were unsure and often avoided each other. But some, the ones from the richer districts, took every opportunity they could to show each other up. They were the Careers, the ones who actively trained to compete in the Hunger Games for their entire lives. They bumped into each other, competed with each other whenever they were at the same stations, and acted generally bloodthirsty.

_Idiots_ Ichigo thought.

Ichigo spent the rest of the time before lunch examining the tributes and trying to decide which ones he would be able to save.

_Most of them are still partially in shock, and probably don't want to kill anyway, so they'll be easy to get behind me as long as I can get them away from the slaughter in the beginning._ Ichigo had been examining footage from previous games and trying to figure out the best way to save the tributes, and had decided that the most critical point in time was the beginning. Often, tributes would rush the Cornucopia and become easy targets for the Careers. _Maybe I can give a speech at lunch._

Perhaps, but today is not the day, Zangetsu interjected.

_Why not?_ Asked Ichigo.

They are scared of you. Perhaps tomorrow.

_Alright, that sounds good._

Just as Ichigo finished his conversation with Zangetsu, Atala called the tributes to a separate room for lunch. There, tables were set up and food was laid on them. Ichigo decided to try and sit with Katniss, and he noticed that the other tributes were indeed afraid of him. They edged away as he walked past them, and even the Careers subconsciously flinched when he looked in their direction.

See? Scared. Zangetsu said.

_I do see,_ Ichigo replied.

"Can I sit here?" Ichigo asked Katniss.

"Sure," was Katniss's curt reply. She handed Ichigo a piece of bread and he sat down, tearing it in half.

"What are you?" She asked after a while.

"What do you mean?"

"You beat two Capitol instructors, and you made it look easy."

"And?" Ichigo said, much to Katniss's exasperation.

"You work in a bakery. I'm pretty sure that hand-to-hand and swordsmanship aren't part of your duties."

"You're right."

"Then where did you learn how to fight like that?" Katniss asked, beginning to become irritated with Ichigo's unhelpfulness.

"Uh…"

"Yes?" Katniss prompted.

_Zangetsu, help me out here._ Ichigo called out in his mind.

_Perhaps if we go for honesty?_

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

"Can we talk about this later?"

Katniss become suddenly aware of the stares of the Gamemakers and tributes, who were waiting with bated breath for Ichigo's answer.

"Fine," she conceded, "later."

A collective sigh of quiet exasperation filled the room as its occupants realized that they weren't going to get to find out about Ichigo's abilities.

* * *

As Katniss lay awake in bed, she thought about just how outclassed by Ichigo she was.

_What chance do I have? _ She thought as she began to feel despair. _Is there really anything I can do? Maybe if I can't beat him, I can outsmart him._ She began to formulate a plan. _I can't fight him head on, but maybe I can get at him from a distance._ _Maybe I can catch him in a trap._ She felt her depression lift as she ran possibilities through her head.

* * *

The next morning, Katniss made her way sleepily along the hallway and into the elevator to go to the roof. Kisuke had pointed out the night before that the roof was open to tributes and she was curious about what was up there. The elevator doors opened and Katniss immediately felt an icy breeze blow right through her. There was a greenhouse on the other side of the roof and not much else. Katniss made her way over to the greenhouse and was about to go inside when she heard voices.

"…I have my ways," one voice said in a teasing tone.

"You better," a second voice said, "if we want to escape."

_Escape?_ Katniss thought.

"Don't worry, I have everything under control." The first voice replied. Katniss realized that it was Kisuke's voice.

"Fine." The second voice conceded grudgingly, "let's go down for breakfast."

_That's Peet- Ichigo's voice._ Kantiss thought. Then, Katniss heard footsteps approaching the door to the greenhouse. She hurried behind the greenhouse just in time to avoid running into Ichigo and Kisuke as they exited. She waited until she heard the elevator doors close before stepping out and finding herself face-to-face with Kisuke.

"Hello Katniss, what brings you up here?" Kisuke asked with an off-putting smile.

"Uh…" Katniss said. She felt like she had just overheard something she wasn't supposed to, and she really didn't want to be found out.

"Perhaps you were enjoying the view?" Kisuke said.

"Er… yeah," Katniss replied hesitantly.

"Strange, though, that you would chose this side of the roof to sight-see from," Kisuke pointed out cheerfully, "with this huge building in the way." Katniss was really beginning to sweat now.

"I… er… um,"

"Ah, I see," Kisuke said knowingly, and Katniss flinched backwards. "You were just admiring the architecture!" Kisuke, apparently satisfied with his own answer, turned away and headed back to the elevator. "Come on, follow me. We wouldn't want to keep our breakfast waiting." Katniss hurried behind the blonde. "Oh, one more thing before we go down." Kisuke said when they entered the elevator, "we have a plan, so don't worry." For some reason, Kisuke's words calmed Katniss and made her feel just a little bit safer.

_Escape, huh? That might be nice._ She thought as Kisuke pressed a button in the elevator and sent them back down to District 12's floor.

* * *

Table in the dining room had been filled with breakfast, and it smelled delicious. Effie had woken up and was sleepily filling her plate with a colorful array of fruits and sausages.

"Good morning Effie," Kisuke said, "Effie?" The woman didn't respond. "We'll wait a bit before we begin the discussion, then." It took about fifteen minutes for Effie to fully wake up. "Finally awake," Kisuke said when he saw her rise from her early morning stupor.

"Indeed," Effie replied, pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"Now that everyone is here, we can begin to discuss our strategy." Kisuke said, tipping his hat, "Ichigo, Katniss, you two need to start doing things that lovers would do."

Ichigo felt himself blush.

"And what's that?" Katniss said. She seemed to be somewhat more comfortable with the idea than Ichigo.

"Oh, you know, things like holding hands, giving gifts, maybe a kiss." Ichigo's blush deepened at the word 'kiss'.

"I'm surprised Ichigo, I didn't realize you were so... immature." Kisuke said, pointing out Ichigo's blush.

_Is he really that innocent?_ Katniss asked herself, _seriously, what kind of teen blushes at the idea of a kiss?_

"Here, Ichigo, I want you to give this to Katniss during training." Kisuke said, holding out a small box covered with wrapping paper and topped with a bow.

"Oh, how romantic!" Effie interjected.

"Uh… sure…" Ichigo said.

"You two better go get dressed now," Kisuke said, "It's almost 9 o'clock."

The two tributes took Kisuke's advice and left the table to go to their separate rooms. Katniss took the time to take a quick shower, making use of the machine she had found on the first day to untangle and dry her hair. Katniss found that it easier to put on the robe thing that Kisuke gave her, now that she knew roughly how to do it. She exited her room to find that the others were already waiting in the dining room.

"Katniss, Ichigo," Kisuke said, beckoning with one hand, "I have something to give you." When they came, he gave each a white bundle of cloth. "I wasn't able to give you these yesterday because Cinna didn't have them ready yet." They each took one and unfolded it. Ichigo recognized them as the same kind of coat that the captains of the gotei 13 wore. On the back, in the place where the division symbol usually sat, was the symbol of District 12. "I hope you like them."

"Yeah, thanks." Said Katniss.

"Great! I'll see you two tonight."

Ichigo, Katniss, and Effie walked into the elevator.

"Oh, and don't forget to hold hands!" Kisuke called as the doors of the elevator closed.

* * *

When Ichigo and Katniss entered the gymnasium, a hush fell over the room. It seemed that Ichigo's scene the day before was not forgotten. When it was clear that Ichigo wasn't going to make any sudden moves, Atala began her speech. Katniss decided to take the initiative, grabbing Ichigo's hand and leading him to a station. As they went from station to station, Ichigo began to notice that they had a shadow. She was the little girl from District 11. She shyly stepped up to all the stations that he and Katniss used. Ichigo pointed it out to Katniss when they came up to a spear-throwing station.

"We have a follower," Ichigo whispered to Katniss. "I'm going to talk to her."

"Wait," Katniss said, but Ichigo was already crouching in front of the girl, holding up a hand.

"My name is…" he paused a second, before deciding, "Peeta." He chose the name the Capitol people would call him in their TV programs to avoid confusion. The girl flinched back at first. Having the scariest (In her opinion) person in the room talk to her was unnerving, to say the least. But then something about Ichigo calmed her, made her feel more at home than she had since getting to the Capitol. She shook Ichigo's hand.

"Rue," She said.

"Nice to meet you, Rue."

Katniss watched as Ichigo led the little girl over to the spear-throwing station and started to work with her, giving her pointers every so often. As she watched, Katniss began to feel just a little bit sad that she would eventually have to kill Ichigo. He seemed so… honest, despite his scowl. Ichigo briefly patted Rue on the head before walking over to Katniss.

"She's a nice kid," he whispered in Katniss's ear, only confirming her view of him as a nice person.

* * *

Later, Kisuke caught Ichigo when he was on his way to his room.

"Hay Ichigo, are you up for a spar on the roof?"

"Always." Ichigo said with a grin.

They went up to the roof and stood facing each other.

"Ready?" Kisuke said, "Three, two, one, go!"

Kisuke and Ichigo charged each other, trading punches and kicks at speeds most people would be unable to follow. Kisuke jumped and aimed a Kick at Ichigo from above. When his attack was blocked by Ichigo's arm, he pushed off of it and flipped backwards, landing on the railing that ran along the edges of the roof. They paused briefly.

"It seems that our athletic abilities are better than a normal human's should be," Kisuke said.

"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked, confused.

"Our souls are enhancing our body's strength and speed above the level that a human body can maintain."

"How?"

"I'm not sure, reincarnation isn't a very well-researched concept. High-level shinigami don't often die, so there's not much material to research."

"So we have some of our old strength back?"

"just a little."

"Ok," said Ichigo. "Let's finish this before it gets too late." Ichigo moved forward and began to trade blows with Kisuke again. Eventually, Kisuke began to take the upper hand. He pressed his advantage, pushing Ichigo back. When he saw an opening, he planted a dual-footed Kick on Ichigo's chest and knocked him to the ground.

"I win!" Kisuke said offering Ichigo a hand.

"Yeah, yeah," Ichigo panted, "Let's go inside."

* * *

At lunch the next day, the tributes were called one by one into the gymnasium to have a private session with the Gamemakers. The idea was to have the Gamemakers rate each tribute on how much potential they have, so that the sponsors had something to go on. Tributes were called in the order of the districts, with 1 being the first and 12 being the last. Boys first. When he was called, Ichigo walked into the gymnasium, unsure of what would happen.

When he entered, the Gamemakers were singing a drinking song and laughing loudly as they dug into a large roast pig. He waited a while for the Gamemakers noticed him, but they made no move to acknowledge him.

"Excuse me," Ichigo said loudly, "I'm here to be rated." He decided to go for politeness, just to be safe.

"Yes, yes, my dear boy," one of the Gamemakers said, "We know."

"So don't you want to see me demonstrate my skill?"

"You already did that!" Another of the Gamemakers cried. "On the very first day!"

"Go on, we'll give you a good score if that's what you're wondering." A man with hair died in swirls of green and blue said, "Leave us now, before we change our minds." Ichigo hurried out, just in case the man meant what he said.

* * *

**Again, please review for a chance to win 10,000 dollars worth of imaginary dog treats. (Your choice of flavor.)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi again, here's chapter four. I hope you like it.**

* * *

It was briefly quiet on floor 12 as Ichigo, Effie, and Kisuke waited for Katniss to come up after her private evaluation with the Gamemakers. Before long, the sound of beeping came from the elevator, signaling that Katniss was on the way.

"Here she comes," said Ichigo.

They waited for her to enter the sitting room, but instead they heard her rush down the hall and into her room.

"That doesn't sound good," said Kisuke

"No, it certainly doesn't." Effie huffed worriedly.

Kisuke and Effie went together to knock on Katniss's door.

"Katniss," asked Effie, "how was the evaluation?"

"Go away!" Katniss shouted unsteadily from the other side of the door. They stayed for a while, hoping that perhaps she would say something.

"We should just give her some time to herself," said Kisuke as he put his hand on Effie shoulder.

"I suppose you're right," Effie said.

They went back into the sitting room to wait just as Cinna and Portia were arriving.

"Where's Katniss?" Cinna asked.

"She's in her room," said Kisuke, waving them into the sitting room.

"She seemed terribly upset, so we decided to leave her alone for a while," added Effie.

"Well, we'll just have to cheer her up then, won't we?" Said Portia.

"Maybe at dinner," Kisuke suggested, "we can find out what happened."

The group in the sitting room quickly realized that there was a lot more time between lunch and dinner than they thought. Cinna and Portia started to discuss fashion, Ichigo was making use of the time to try out a set of weights that Kisuke had pointed out to him earlier, and Kisuke was tinkering with a coffee maker using a screwdriver that he apparently had in his sleeve. Effie seemed to be content to flutter between them and make unhelpful comments every once and a while. When she saw what Kisuke was doing, she immediately went into a tirade.

"Haytmitch!" She cried, "you can't just go pulling apart things you don't own!"

"Why not?"

"Why no-" She repeated huffily, "because it's not yours!" She pulled the thing that was once a coffee maker out of Kisuke's hands and then quickly dropped it again when it started to vibrate. "What's it doing?" Effie demanded.

"I'm not all that sure myself, I was halfway through something important when you took it away."

"How can you make something and then be unsure about its use?"

"I don't know." Kisuke replied in his usual care-free tone. Effie gave a noise that was halfway between a squeak and a growl and stalked off to her room. "Anyway," Kisuke said when he heard her door slam, "I suggest we get out of the room for the time being," said Kisuke. Ichigo, who was more familiar with Kisuke and his inventions, grabbed both Portia and Cinna's hands and quickly exited into the dining room.

"I don't really see how dangerous a coffee machine can be," said Cinna.

"If Getaboshi says to get out then it's usually a good idea to do what he says."

"Take cover!" Said Kisuke as he rushed into the room. He was just clear of the doorway when a loud explosion sounded from the sitting room, temporarily deafening the occupants of floor 12.

"That's why," said Ichigo once his ears stopped ringing, "I do what he says."

* * *

BOOM

Katniss heard the sound of an explosion from the sitting room.

_They've come, come to take me away for what I did in the gymnasium,_ she thought, curling herself into a tighter ball in her bed. Ten minutes later, the guards that Katniss was expecting hadn't arrived. _Maybe the Gamemakers were just too drunk to call the guards?_ Katniss guessed, feeling a little bit of hope. She lifted herself from her bed to see what had happened. When she opened her door and looked down the hall, she could see that the area surrounding the doorway to the sitting room was charred. _Just what happened?_ Katniss wondered. She carefully peeked around the corner of the doorway to find that Kisuke, Ichigo, Effie, and the stylists sitting on various tattered chairs and couches.

"What happened?" Katniss asked, deciding that it was relatively safe.

"Haymitch happened!" Effie yelled furiously, "he turned the coffee machine into a _bomb_!"

"Actually, you did," said Kisuke.

"ME? You're the one who made it!"

"But you took it away and then dropped it before I could stabilize it." Kisuke said, sounding almost annoyed. "Anyway, hello Katniss. We've been waiting for you."

Katniss decided not to ask how Kisuke got a coffee-maker to explode.

"So, what happened in the training room?" Asked Ichigo. When Katniss was reminded, she felt herself begin to tear up again. "Katniss?"

"I… I'm done for."

"What happened?" Ichigo pressed.

"I shot an arrow at the Gamemakers."

"And?"

"Huh?" Katniss didn't quite understand the question.

"How'd they react?"

"I uh… don't really know. I went up in the elevator before I was their response."

"Without being dismissed?" Effie gasped.

"I dismissed myself," Katniss said. "Do you think they'll arrest me?"

"It's already too late to replace you, so I think it's unlikely," said Kisuke.

"What about my family? Will they punish them?" Katniss said worriedly.

"It would take a very large amount effort on their part to maneuver this whole thing into something that makes the Gamemakers look good, and they aren't very keen on hard work. I'd say your family is safe." Kisuke reassured her.

Besides, they were in a good mood," Ichigo added. "When I walked in, they were singing a drinking song."

Somehow, everyone's words were making Katniss feel better. She felt herself cheer up as Ichigo and Kisuke bantered back and forth between each other. Without the crushing feeling of dread, Katniss realized how hungry she was.

"I'm hungry, when's food?" She asked.

"It's just been served," Effie said, peeking into the dining room.

As they sat down to their meal, Katniss had one more question.

"How, exactly, is it possible to make a coffee-maker explode?"

* * *

After dinner, they went back into the sitting room to watch the announcements for the tributes' scores on the TV. That is, until they saw that the sitting room TV was rendered unusable by a piece of coffee-maker. Kisuke was about to open it up and try to fix it when Effie stopped him.

"Absolutely not!" She said, "That coffee-maker was the last thing you'll _ever_ get your hands on! I'll make sure of it!"

"Oh come on, don't you trust me?" The awkward silence that followed made Effie's opinion clear.

"There's a TV in my room, we can use that." Katniss said, hoping to resolve the problem before the announcement started.

"Good idea, let's go." Ichigo said, thinking roughly along the same lines as Katniss.

They all piled onto Katniss's bed and Katniss turned on the TV. The announcements were, of course, in ascending order by district number. The scores were on a scale from one to twelve, with one being the worst, and twelve being the best. The Career tributes, the ones from districts 1 through 4, got scores ranging from eight to ten. Most of the others made about five, and Rue surprised Katniss by getting a seven. Then it was Ichigo's turn.

"And here's Peeta Mellark from District 12." The announcer said, "Coming in at…" he squinted at something out of the view of the camera, possibly a screen with prompts, and did a double-take before continuing. "A _whopping_ twelve!" He said excitedly. Katniss's room erupted with happy shouts as everybody congratulated Ichigo on his score. "I don't believe this has happened more than once or twice in the entire history on the Hunger Games! Amazing!" It took him about ten seconds to calm down, and even longer for Effie and the stylists. Katniss was slightly depressed by Ichigo's high score. Not surprised, after seeing his battles with the instructors, just slightly depressed. Now she had no chance of being noticed. The Gamemakers were going to give her a bad score and then Ichigo would overshadow her further.

"And _now_ for Katniss Everdeen, let's see if she can top Peeta's score." The man said, sounding a little bit bored. "OH!" He cried when he saw Katniss's rating, "Eleven!" Katniss's heart leapt, and then sort of tripped over itself with confusion. "Amazing, an eleven and a twelve in one Hunger Games! And both are from District 12!" The anthem of Panem played as the announcer wrapped up the show.

"That doesn't even make any sense. How…?" Katniss trailed off.

"I told you they were in a good mood!" Ichigo said, placing a hand on Katniss's shoulder.

"Katniss, the girl who was on fire!" Cinna said, giving Katniss a hug, "just wait until you see your interview costume!"

"More flames?" Katniss asked.

"Of a sort." Cinna replied, sounding mischievous.

As Katniss felt relief flood through her body, she also felt tired. The day had been long and stressful, and she was starting to feel it. When she was finally released from her excited team, she crashed in bed and immediately fell asleep. Her dreams were filled with the number eleven dancing around in her head wearing tap-shoes and carrying a cane. She remembered it later as bizarre, but somehow charming.

* * *

The next day was set aside for the tributes to spend time with their mentors, preparing for their interviews. The plan was to spend four hours with Effie, improving manners and learning the technique for presentation, and another four hours with Kisuke, getting the idea of the overall message. After about two hours with Effie, she dragged Katniss away to help her with walking in high-heels, leaving Ichigo behind to 'take a break for a bit'.

_What now?_ Ichigo thought.

_Perhaps we can find Kisuke for a spar?_ Zangetsu suggested.

_That's a good idea, I wanted to ask him how far along with your gigai he is anyway._ Ichigo thought. He found Kisuke in his room tinkering with the automatic dresser.

"Oh hello, Ichigo, what brings you here so early?" Kisuke said without turning around.

"Effie is teaching Katniss how to walk in high-heels, so she sent me away. Do you have time for a spar?" Ichigo said, peeking over Kisuke's shoulder at what he was working on. It was an odd device that was shaped like a skull, but made out of bits of metal coat-hangers.

"Sorry Ichigo, not right now, I'm working on something important."

"What is it?" Ichigo asked.

"It's a tool to channel a soul directly from one inhabitance to another."

"…Right. Well, see you later," said Ichigo, who really didn't understand exactly what Kisuke was saying. He stepped out of Kisuke's room and nearly ran into Effie.

"Good, you're here, Peeta," Effie said happily, "Let's get started."

Ichigo spent the next two hours learning general manners with Effie and getting yelled at roughly every five minutes for doing one thing or another wrong. It was exhausting.

_Any idea how much longer we have?_ Ichigo asked Zangetsu on his head.

_The time is just about up now,_ Zangetsu responded.

_Thanks._

"Effie?" Ichigo said.

"Yes?"

"Our time's up."

"Nonsense, you will stay with me until you learn to end your barbaric ways!" Effie said stubbornly. Something in her seemed to have snapped in the last day, and she was now hell-bent on preparing both Ichigo and Katniss as much as possible.

_I don't have much of a choice, do I?_

_None at all._

* * *

After Effie finally released Ichigo, he and Katniss found Kisuke. He was still in his room tinkering when they knocked on his door.

"I'll be out in a minute!" He shouted through the door. Ichigo and Katniss heard a small pop that could have been an explosion, and then Kisuke opened the door, his coat slightly dusted with ash. "What can I do for you?"

"The interview." Ichigo reminded him.

"Oh right! Come this way," he said, beckoning them into his room. It was a mess. Anything vaguely mechanical had been taken apart and most had been remade into something else. "Watch your step." Kisuke cleared a space on the bed for him, Ichigo, and Katniss to sit. "Have a seat."

He began to explain exactly how he wanted Ichigo and Katniss to act. It was mostly things that subtly, but not too subtly, pointed to a romantic relationship between Katniss and Peeta. Kisuke had thought of a surprisingly large amount of scenarios and solutions to each of them. They filled the entire four hours this way, with Kisuke presenting scenarios and having Ichigo and Katniss try to reply 'in character' to them.

Kisuke wanted Ichigo to contrast his usual demeanor when it came to Katniss and be timid and shy whenever she was brought up in conversation. It wasn't hard for Ichigo to do, because Kisuke had given him a trick; whenever Katniss was brought up in conversation, think about kissing her. At the end of their session, Ichigo was so practiced at thinking about the situation that whenever Katniss was brought up in normal conversation, it automatically caused him to turn beet red and begin to stutter.

_Damn it, Getaboshi._

_He understands your feelings better than you do._ Zangetsu said.

_For the last time, I do not like Katniss Everdeen!_ Ichigo thought with frustration, blushing again.

_Then think about kissing Rukia,_ Zangetsu suggested.

…_Why?_ Ichigo asked.

_Definitely not the same response,_ Zangetsu commented. _Now think about Katniss again._ Ichigo silently turned red. _Definitely._

_Just shut up already._

* * *

Katniss found once again that Ichigo was annoying her. Why did he have to be so… so… weird? And now Kisuke had made it worse. Whenever she caught his eye, be would turn completely red and look away as fast as he could. She let out a frustrated sigh as she watched him excuse himself from the dinner table.

Later, when Katniss went to bed, the eleven returned in her dream. Katniss realized that the eleven was a girl. This time, eleven came arm-in-arm with the number twelve, who was covered in bright orange fur. Katniss knew that number twelve was male, in just the same way that she knew that eleven was female. The two double-digit numbers waltzed back and forth in before her to music that she couldn't hear, and looked genuinely happy. _Strange…_ Katniss thought muzzily in her dream, _I feel like I've seen twelve somewhere before…_ Then the dream ended and Katniss fell into a much deeper sleep.

* * *

Ichigo was woken up to the sound of Effie informing him that the day was going to be 'big, big, big', and that he better get moving if he didn't want to be late. He put on his shihakusho and went out for breakfast. In the hall, he ran into Katniss who quietly stared at him until he turned red and dodged around her and sat down for breakfast. Katniss sat down as well and started to eat.

_She's staring at you,_ Zangetsu pointed out.

_I know, I'm trying to ignore it._ Ichigo said, blushing slightly.

"Now, now, Katniss, you're scaring Ichigo." Said Kisuke.

"Huh?" Katniss said, acting like she'd just been daydreaming.

"You were staring," Kisuke explained.

"Oh, sorry."

When breakfast ended, Ichigo and Katniss were sent off with their prep teams to be prepared for the interview. They used a lengthy and somewhat painful process to soften his skin to the point where he felt like it would rip if someone pinched it too hard, and then got to work on his costume design. The prep work for Ichigo's outfit was minimal, and Ichigo was glad. Portia came with the outfit, but told Ichigo to close his eyes before he could see what it was.

"You're going to _love_ it!" She gushed, "I do." Ichigo felt like the entire prep team was pitching in, struggling to figure out how to dress Ichigo. They put it on and then took it right back off again when they realized they put it on wrong. Portia maneuvered him in front of a mirror. "You can open your eyes now!" She said, her excitement completely undampened by their difficulty in getting the outfit on. Ichigo opened his eyes to find that he was in something that looked almost exactly like his Bankai coat, and felt a small smile cross his features. "It was Haymitch's design! I think I may try to get him to stay at the Capitol and work on fashion with me. Wouldn't that just be _marvelous_?" Portia gushed, "And that's not all!" She reached into the side of the coat and pulled something. The edge of the coat began to burn a dark black, fluttering in an intangible wind. "See? His own design! I don't know _how_ he does it." Ichigo noticed that there was small amounts of reiatsu coming from the flames.

_Inventive as always,_ Ichigo thought.

"I'll have to thank him." He said.

"Are you ready for your interview?" Portia asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be," replied Ichigo.

They went to the elevator to wait to go down. Ichigo realized that he was slightly nervous as he waited for Katniss to arrive.

_You will do fine,_ Zangetsu said, _Just remember what Kisuke said and it will be fine._

_Ok, _Ichigo thought, _Thanks, Zangetsu._

"There's Katniss!" Said Portia. Ichigo turned around to look and was completely stunned. She was wearing a dress that looked like it was made of jewels. It sparkled as she moved and she looked like she was on fire.

"Wow," said Ichigo.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Katniss asked irritably.

"Ah… uh…" Ichigo stammered, "I… just meant that you look good."

"Oh," Katniss said, realizing that she had misunderstood.

"Now then," Prompted Kisuke before things got any more awkward, "Shall we go?"

"Sure…" both Ichigo and Katniss said in unison.

The doors of the elevator opened to a dark area behind the temporary stage that had been erected for the interviews.

They were pushed up on stage and into an arc formed by them and all the other tributes. They stood for a while as Caesar Flickerman introduced himself and explained the process. The introduction and explanation was hardly necessary, the Hunger Games had been going on for seventy five years and the man himself had been interviewing tributes for forty of those. Everyone knew who he was.

"And now the tributes may take their seats." Flickerman called loudly. "Except for you, Glimmer of District 1, I'm ready to interview you."

The girl Flickerman had called, much to Ichigo's embarrassment, was wearing a golden and quite see-through dress that fell around her well-proportioned form in a way that was very… suggestive. Ichigo looked away and hoped that her interview would end quickly. It did. A buzzer sounded and the sultry girl took a seat while the District 1 boy, Marvel, strode confidently up to the stage. Flickerman, Ichigo noticed, had a calming effect on most of the tributes, he always seemed to know what to say to help the tribute shine.

_Does he have nightmares, spending forty years interviewing children before watching them fight each other to the death?_ Ichigo wondered. _Probably not._

Each tribute was called in order and time passed.

Rue, the girl from District 11 that Ichigo met in the training room, was dressed in a gossamer gown with butterfly wings. Flickerman was gentle, complementing her seven in training and helping to guide her towards the right direction. Near the end of the interview he asked,

"And what's your greatest strength?"

""I'm very hard to catch," she replied without hesitation, "and if they can't catch me they can't kill me." She briefly glanced in Ichigo's direction before continuing, "So don't count me out."

"I wouldn't in a million years," said Flickerman. The buzzer went off, and Rue went down back to her seat.

The next tribute to go up was a large boy named Thresh. He was quiet and answered each question with only a yes or a no throughout the entire interview. His interview finished, and Katniss was called next. She strode up to the stage, shimmering, and shook Flickerman's hand.

"So, Katniss, the Capitol must be quite a change from District 12. What's impressed you the most since you arrived here?" Flickerman asked, starting out simply. Katniss stood quietly for a second, looking for the words.

"The lamb stew," Katniss said, drawing a few laughs from the audience.

_I guess she decided to go for honesty._ Ichigo thought.

_It seems her time with Kisuke was not entirely necessary,_ Zangetsu added.

"The one with the plums?" Flickerman asked, trying to save the conversation. Katniss nodded. "I eat it by the bucketful." Flickerman joked, turning to the crowd, "it doesn't show, does it?" The crowd shouted 'NO!' and applauded, as if he were the lovable uncle at a party.

"Now, Katniss," Flickerman said, returning to the subject at hand, "when you came out in the opening ceremonies, my heart actually stopped. What did you think about the costume?" He asked. Katniss was silent again for a moment before responding.

"You mean after I got over my fear of being burned alive?" She asked. The audience laughed loudly and genuinely at Katniss's comment, cheering her on.

"Yes. Start then," Flickerman prompted.

"I thought Cinna was brilliant and it was the most gorgeous costume I'd ever seen and I couldn't believe I was wearing it," Katniss said in one breath. "And I can't believe I'm wearing this, either," Katniss lifted her skirt, causing it to sparkle. The crowd exclaimed dramatically as they watched the dress come alive with light. Then she twirled around once, and the dress went from bright to vibrant. The already excited crowd broke out into cheers.

"Oh, do that again!" Flickerman said.

Katniss obliged, spreading her arms out wide and spinning until she tripped forward dizzily and had to grab Flickerman's arm for support.

"Don't stop!" Flickerman urged.

"I have to," Katniss giggled, "I'm dizzy!"

_Did she just… giggle?_ Ichigo asked himself. Flickerman wrapped a gentle arm around Katniss, steading her.

"Don't worry, I've got you. Can't have you following in your mentor's footsteps." The crowd laughed again as the cameras swung around to Kisuke, who waved cheerfully with his hat. "It's all right," Flickerman reassured the crowd, "she's safe with me. So, how about that training score. Eleven. Give us a hint what happened in there." He asked eagerly. Katniss glanced up in the direction of the Gamemakers, biting her lip.

"Um… all I can say, is I think it was a first." The cameras where now trained on the Gamemakers, who chuckled and nodded.

"You're _killing_ us," Flickerman said, looking pained. "Details, details." He pressed.

"I'm not supposed to talk about it, right?" Katniss asked the Gamemakers.

"She's not!" One Gamemaker shouted.

"Thank you," said Katniss, "Sorry, my lips are sealed."

"Let's go back then, to the moment when they called your sister's name in the reaping." Flickerman said. Katniss looked somewhat pained by the memory. "And you volunteered. Can you tell us about her?" Katniss looked reluctant.

"Her name's Prim. She's just twelve. And I love her more than anything in the world." She said quietly.

"And what did she say to you? After the reaping?" Katniss swallowed hard.

"She asked me to try really hard to win." She said. The audience was now silent, hanging no Katniss's every word.

"And what did you say?" Flickerman prompted.

"I swore I would," said Katniss, her voice turning steely.

"I bet you did." Flickerman said just as the buzzer sounded. Katniss made her way back to her seat, her journey punctuated by the audience's applause.

_It's your turn,_ Zangetsu said in Ichigo's head.

"Peeta Mellark, come on up!" Flickerman called.

_Wish me luck,_ thought Ichigo. He walked up to the stage, his flaming coat trailing behind him.

"So, Peeta, a twelve." Said Flickerman, eager to get straight to the best part, "How did you do it?" Ichigo was about to respond, but Flickerman cut him off. "Oh, right. You can't tell us anything about what happened, can you?"

"No, not really." Ichigo replied.

"Then, perhaps you can tell us your skills?" Flickerman asked. Ichigo nodded. "Go on then."

"Uh… Swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat." Ichigo decided to leave out baking.

"And you're a baker's son?"

"Yes."

"Then, tell me about how you came to be so impressive."

_Zangetsu, what do I say?_ Ichigo asked in his head, panicking slightly. Kisuke's protocol went out the window as soon as Katniss started talking, and now Ichigo was unsure of what to say.

_Why are you asking me? It's your interview,_ Zangetsu said, equally flustered.

"Go on, there's got to be something," Flickerman prompted.

"I uh… used to wrestle, back in school." Not strictly a lie, but certainly not the whole truth.

"And the swords?"

"After school with my brothers, fighting with sticks." Another half-truth.

"And you got a twelve in training?" Flickerman asked.

"Everyone always said I was a natural," Ichigo replied, feeling a little bit lame.

"Yes…" Flickerman said, giving up. "Stand up and show us that coat of yours. I've never seen anything like it." Ichigo stood up, letting the coat fall behind him. "Are those the same kind of flame as the stuff at the opening ceremonies?" He asked indicating the black fire that was raging at the bottom of Ichigo's coat. Ichigo nodded. "Oh! That reminds me!" Flickerman said, his face lighting up, "What did you think about your costume at the opening ceremonies?" He paused, for a moment, before adding, "After you got over your fear of being burned alive, that is." This got a laugh out of the crowd.

"It was good." Ichigo replied simply.

"Wasn't it?" Flickerman said, "Anyway, do you have someone special to go back home to?"

"Well… uh… n-no…" Ichigo trailed off and his face went red.

"Handsome lad like you. There must be some special girl. Come on. What's her name?"

"um… uh…"

Zantgetsu sighed in Ichigo's head.

_Go on,_

"There's this one girl," Ichigo stuttered out, starting to remember Kisuke's words, "I've had a crush on her ever since I can remember. But I'm pretty sure she didn't know I was alive until the reaping," The crowd sighed in sympathy. Now that they had something to relate to, they were eager to cheer Ichigo on.

"She have another fellow?"

"I don't know, but a lot of boys like her," Ichigo said.

"So," Flickerman said decisively, "Here's what you do. You win the Games, you go home. She can't turn you down then, eh?"

"I don't think that's going to work out. Winning… won't help in my case," Ichigo said, his blush deepening.

"Why ever not?" Flickerman asked, mystified.

"Because…" Ichigo said, "Because…"

_Just say it already._

"She came here with me."

* * *

**This is the last chapter before we finally get to the games, so get ready. Please review because reviews help me keep writing.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello! Thanks for all the reviews this week, they really encourage me! This is the chapter we finally get into the games, so have fun!**

* * *

"_She came here with me."_

* * *

Even though Katniss knew what Ichigo was going to say before-hand, she still blushed slightly at his 'confession'.

_It's all fake_, she reminded herself, _he doesn't mean it._

"Oh, that is a piece of bad luck," Flickerman said sadly. The crowd responded with murmurs of agreement and even some overly dramatic cries of anguish.

"It sucks," Ichigo agreed.

"Well, I don't think any of us can blame you. It'd be hard not to fall for that young lady," Flickerman said with a nod, "she didn't know?" Ichigo shook his head in response.

"Not until now."

_All fake,_ Katniss thought.

"Wouldn't you love to pull her back out here and get a response?" Asked Flickerman.

_Please don't,_ thought Katniss with some dread. The audience, however, screamed yesses as loud as they could.

"Sadly, rules are rules and, and Katniss Everdeen's time has been spent," Flickerman said, relieving Katniss and disappointing the crowd. "Well, best of luck to you. Peeta Mellark, and I think I speak for all of Panem when I say our hearts go with yours," said Flickerman. The crowd erupted with cheers and sympathetic cries.

"Thank you," said Ichigo, sounding somewhat more composed. He returned to his seat next to Katniss and let out a quiet sigh of relief.

_Finally over,_ Ichigo thought. Not even a minute later the tributes, along with the rest of the crowd, were called to stand for the anthem of Panem. Cameras everywhere were aimed at Ichigo and Katniss as they stood a few feet apart with just slightly red faces. When the anthem ended, the tributes were released. Ichigo and Katniss rushed together into the elevator and out of view.

When the doors opened to District 12's floor, Ichigo and Katniss stepped out and stood in the hallway for a moment.

"So…" Ichigo trailed off. He couldn't figure out what to say.

"Yeah…" Katniss agreed. She felt the same way. Ichigo had to suppress the sudden urge to talk about the weather.

"You think we made a good impression?" Ichigo asked.

"I'm not sure," Katniss replied, "I think you did better than I did."

"Really?" Ichigo asked.

_You're supposed to complement her,_ said Zangetsu.

_Oh._

"Er… I mean… you were the better one," Said Ichigo, feeling somewhat stupid.

"Um… oh," Katniss said, "Uh, thanks." They stood in silence a little while longer, each waiting for the other to say something. Katniss was about to say something when the elevator doors opened to reveal Cinna, Portia, Effie, and Kisuke.

"Hello my young pupils, are we interrupting something?" Kisuke asked, twirling his bucket hat.

"You did great!" Said Portia, "everyone loved you!"

"Yes, an excellent performance!" Kisuke agreed. "Now, let's eat."

They followed Kisuke into the dining room where cream and rose-petal soup sat waiting for them.

"You really think I did ok?" Katniss asked.

"You did very well," Kisuke replied.

"But I didn't do anything you told me to," Katniss said.

"That's ok, I'm glad you did it your own way."

"I was boring," Katniss said.

"You looked charming," said Cinna.

"You did," agreed Ichigo.

They continued their meal, and finished with hot-lava cake for dessert. After dinner, they all went to watch the replay of the interviews. The sitting room TV was still broken, so they used Katniss's TV instead. Katniss wasn't entirely sure whether or not she wanted to see it. The interviews went much more quickly than Katniss remembered.

_I guess when I'm not waiting for my turn, it's less painful to watch,_ Katniss thought. When she saw herself step up on stage, she almost gagged. She looked frilly and shallow as she span and giggled her way through the first part.

"I'm not just boring, I look like an idiot," Katniss said with a groan.

"You look charming, didn't you hear me earlier?" Cinna reassured her, "I wasn't lying."

"Of course. Look!" Kisuke said, pointing back to the screen and the audience's applause, "They like you." Katniss, still feeling somewhat uneasy about her interview, watched as Ichigo was called up. He was likable, she thought, if a little bit awkward. His confession took the audience by storm, causing them to almost completely forget about the previous tributes. She watched as Ichigo exited the stage and the anthem played. As the screen went dark, Effie pulled Ichigo and Katniss to their feet. Ichigo was surprised when he noticed that she had tears in her eyes.

"What a privilege it has been, being your host," she said between little sobs, "you've been simply the _best_ tributes. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor," saying the catch-phrase launched her into heavier sobs. "I wouldn't be surprised at all if I finally get promoted to a decent district next year!" She said. Then she kissed Katniss and Ichigo both on the cheek before running out of the room.

"I have a few last pieces of advice for you two," Kisuke said, leaning against the doorway and tipping his hat. "Katniss, I want you to get away from the Cornucopia as fast as possible and just try to stay alive." Katniss nodded. "Ichigo, your package will arrive on top of the Cornucopia as soon as it's ready."

"How long?"

"A week? Maybe longer?" Kisuke estimated.

"What package?" Katniss asked.

"Something I'm putting together to send to Ichigo during the games."

"Why don't I get a package?" Katniss asked, feeling like Kisuke was favoring Ichigo.

"It's something that will benefit both of you," Kisuke clarified, "so don't worry."

"Ok," Katniss said, "just promise you'll share it if you get to it first." Katniss felt a little bit dumb for thinking that getting Ichigo to promise would change things. After today, they would be enemies, trying to make sure the other ended up dead.

"I promise," Ichigo replied.

"That's all I think I need to say," yawned Kisuke, "good night." He walked out of Katniss's room, his wooden shoes clacking as he went.

"Portia and I need to go now," said Cinna, "good night,"

"Good night," Katniss replied.

"Good night," Ichigo said to Katniss, "I'll see you in the morning." He seemed more comfortable around Katniss now that the interviews were over.

_He makes it sound so normal,_ Katniss thought.

"Aren't you just a little bit scared?" Katniss asked, "we're about to go to fight to the death, that's gotta scare anybody."

"Remind me someday to tell you about Kenpachi Zaraki," Ichigo said, "then you'll understand."

'_Someday', it's like he doesn't even understand the situation,_ Katniss thought to herself.

"Why can't you just tell me about it now?" She asked.

"It's… uh… complicated," Ichigo replied nervously.

"It's just that… 'Someday' will never come. Either one of us will be dead, or both," said Katniss, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Are you that sure?" Ichigo asked. Katniss could feel her composure dissolve.

"Of course! There's no other outcome!" Katniss cried.

"Yeah… I guess you're right," said Ichigo.

"Did you _just_ realize that?" Katniss yelled angrily, "that's what the Games _are_!" She pushed Ichigo out of the room and slammed the door in his face.

_What was that for?_ Ichigo thought, confused.

_You were making light of the situation,_ Zangetsu replied, _she wanted you to take it seriously._

_But I am!_ Ichigo thought indignantly.

_She didn't think so._

_I don't understand any of it,_ Ichigo thought.

_You should get some sleep,_ Zangetsu suggested, _It's going to be a long day tomorrow._ Ichigo took Zangetsu's advice, walking down the hall and into his room.

_Good night,_ he thought.

_Good night._

* * *

Portia came before dawn to wake Ichigo up.

"Peeta, wake up, it's time to go," she said.

"I'm coming!" Said Ichigo. He hurried out of bed and put on his shihakusho.

"Are you ready?" Portia asked, looking at him briefly.

"Yes, let's go."

Portia led him through the hallway to the elevator.

_This is probably the last time I'll see this place,_ Ichigo thought, glancing from side to side. He and Portia stepped into the elevator and ascended to the roof. For a moment, nothing happened. Then Ichigo noticed a faint distortion in the air coming towards the tower. It continued to get closer, until it was directly above Ichigo and Portia, ruffling their hair and clothes. The distortion fell away to reveal a hover-craft. A hatch on the bottom opened and a ladder fell in front of Ichigo. When he stepped on the ladder it sent an electric current through him, freezing him.

"What is this?" Ichigo demanded, struggling against the ladder's hold. He was not answered. Instead the ladder was reeled back into the hovercraft. Inside, a man in a white coat stepped forward with a syringe.

"Alright, Peeta, this is a tracker," the man said, "If you stay still, it'll go in easier."

"I don't have much choice," said Ichigo. The man responded by poising the syringe at Ichigo's forearm and pushing. He seemed surprised to find that he had to use considerably more force than usual to break Ichigo's skin.

"Must be dull," the white coated man muttered to himself. Ichigo felt a sting as the needle pushed into his skin and deposited a small bead. Now the Capitol would be able to track Ichigo's every move using the little pellet.

Ichigo felt the current from the ladder subside and he dropped down off of the ladder. Portia climbed up the ladder while the man with the syringe disappeared from the cabin. Ichigo felt the hover-craft start to move and made his way to a window. Outside, he could see the Capitol fall away behind them. A simple in-flight breakfast was provided and Ichigo ate it as he looked out the window. The windows were clear for thirty minutes before going completely dark, signaling that the arena was in sight.

_Almost there,_ Ichigo thought. It was another five minutes before he felt the movement of the hover-craft subside, and the hatch opened again. The ladder dropped down through a concrete cylinder and into a system of roughly hewn caves.

"This way," said Portia, consulting a map and pointing down one of the several tunnels. Small lights ran along the sides of the tunnels, filling them with a cold white glow. Sometimes, they would walk past a place where the tunnel branched off into two separate routes. At the intersections there were empty holes for plaques, places for information that Capitol citizens could read during tourist hours.

They arrived at the Launch Room, the place where Ichigo would spend the rest of the time before the Games. The room was simple and mostly bare, save for a spread of food on a table in the center and a couch that stood against a wall. There was a metal circle in the middle of the floor that Ichigo assumed was the platform that he would rise on to get to the surface and the Cornucopia.

"Go ahead and take a shower," Portia said, "I'll wait for you here." She was acting much calmer than usual, and Ichigo thought that it was because she was nervous. Ichigo, as he stepped into the shower, was feeling a little bit unsure about himself. His thoughts had always been directed towards others, his brothers, the tributes, Katniss, even Kisuke, but he hadn't ever considered the possibility of dying himself.

_Ichigo, it's beginning to get cloudy in here,_ Zangetsu said, dragging Ichigo out of his thoughts.

_Oh, sorry,_ he replied, _I just realized that I might die out there._

_You can't afford to be nervous,_ said Zangetsu, _remember what I once said. __Abandon your fear. Look forward. Move forward and never stop. You'll age if you pull back. You'll die if you hesitate. Those are the words I once said. Focus on your goal._

_Thanks Zangetsu,_ Ichigo thought, _you're right._ He finished his shower and cleaned his teeth with renewed resolve.

"Excuse me," Ichigo called from the bathroom.

"Yes?" Portia asked.

"I need some clothes, are they ready?"

"Soon, just wait a bit longer." 'A little bit longer' turned out to be another thirty minutes. Ichigo was just about to change back into his shihakusho when he heard a knock on the door to the main room. He heard a brief rustling as the clothes changed hands.

"Thank you, you may go," Portia said. "Peeta, I have the clothes, would you like me help you dress?"

"No!" Ichigo cried, "I mean… no, no thank you." He wasn't particularly interested in having Portia see him naked more than was absolutely necessary. They weren't a shihakusho, but the clothes fit snugly, and felt quite warm. When Ichigo stepped out of the shower, there were still a good two hours before it would be time to go to the arena. Ichigo found himself pacing back and forth across the room, wishing that there were something else to do. He had been pacing for a full half-hour when Portia interrupted.

"Peeta, is there anything I can do for you?" She asked, "Perhaps you should eat." She had a point, Ichigo's breakfast was light and it would be important to have good energy for the first day. Ichigo spent the rest of the time slowly eating small bites of the lunch that was provided. Eventually, a pleasant female voice announced that the Games would be starting soon.

Ichigo steeled himself and stepped onto the metal circle on the floor and waited. Soon, the plate began to rise, pushing Ichigo upwards.

"Ladies and gentlemen," a loud voice boomed through the entire arena, "let the seventy fourth Hunger Games begin!"

* * *

The sun was bright, shining into Ichigo's eyes and temporarily blinding him. When his eyes adjusted, he saw that he and the other tributes were situated in a ring around the Cornucopia. The Cornucopia was in a large open field, with a forest on one side and a lake to the other. The tributes had sixty seconds before they were allowed to move from their spots. If they moved any sooner, land mines planted under their feet would explode, killing them instantly. He cast his eyes around, and found Katniss. She was eyeing a high-quality bow that sat invitingly in the mouth of the Cornucopia. She noticed Ichigo and he shook his head. The meaning was clear '_It's not worth it, run away_'. Ichigo looked around elsewhere. He was right between two Career tributes, who were both eyeing him wearily. He looked at the other tributes. Most were nervously eyeing the Cornucopia and the goods inside.

_Idiots!_ Ichigo thought, _run away! Stay alive!_ He didn't have much more time, he would have to choose a course of action and stick to it.

BONG!

A loud gong rang, releasing the tributes from their circles. Ichigo rushed forward, into the Cornucopia.

Most of the tributes rushed forward, in hopes of quickly grabbing some essentials and then running into the forest. Ichigo saw Katniss hesitate for a moment, her feet shuffling, before dashing forward a short way to pick up something from the very edge of the Cornucopia. Then Ichigo was pushed off balance by the girl from District 7. They tumbled to the ground and the girl came at him with a knife.

"Stop it!" Ichigo yelled as he caught the girl's wrist, "I'm going to help you!" She continued to struggle, pushing her knife towards Ichigo's face. Ichigo squeezed her wrist tightly, making her drop the knife.

"If you want to help me, let me kill you!" She cried.

"Sorry, I can't do that," Ichigo replied, "there are other people I want to save." The girl gave an angry scream and pushed harder against Ichigo. She was angry, but her intent to kill was subsiding. Ichigo stopped resisting and let her pin him to the ground. "Truce?" Ichigo offered. The girl nodded, and Ichigo could feel her tears landing on him. "Now, pull yourself together, we need to move," he continued. They had been lucky, the girl had pushed them down between two crates and out of sight. The girl gave a small yip when Ichigo pushed her easily off of him and grabbed her wrist in a strong grip. The girl realized that Ichigo had been in control the whole time, and it made her glad that he wasn't trying to kill her. Ichigo pulled the girl deeper into the Cornucopia's maw. "Stay here and try to get some food and sleeping bags. Get six or seven of them. I'll be right back," he said. The girl nodded quietly. "If someone sees you, run. You got that?" Another nod. Ichigo turned away, satisfied that she would be safe. Ichigo exited the Cornucopia to find a grizzly scene. Multiple tributes were already lying dead on the ground, and there was fighting everywhere.

_Damn,_ Ichigo cursed. He made a quick decision and rushed towards a pair of boys who were wrestling on the ground near a cooler full of water. Ichigo soon noticed that he wasn't the only one who was moving towards the two boys. A girl, a Career from District 3, was running towards them with a long machete. Ichigo stepped into her path, hoping that he would be done with her fast enough to stop the boys from killing each other. The girl stopped in her tracks. If anyone other than Ichigo had confronted her, she would have attacked without hesitation, but Ichigo scared her. She had seen him fighting the instructors, he was lightning fast. Even with a lifetime training as a Career tribute behind her, he was someone that she didn't wasn't to go up against.

"Out of the way!" She shouted.

"I can't do that," Ichigo stated in reply.

"Out of the way or I'll kill you!"

"No," said Ichigo. The girl's eyes flew wide open when Ichigo dashed forward and… past her?

"Watch out!"

The girl watched as the blade she was holding was wrenched out of her hand and brought around in an arc to deflect a silvery streak of light.

"Wha…" was all she could say before Ichigo pushed her behind him.

"Listen to me, I need your help," said Ichigo, "Just keep behind me for now." He deflected another streak of light, which had originated from a girl near the forest. The girl from District 3 saw that the streaks of light were actually knifes. When the girl near the forest realized that none of her knifes were going to hit, she dashed into the forest to escape. Once the girl with the knives was gone, Ichigo turned to the two boys. They were now struggling in the dust and one had his hands firmly around the other's neck.

"Stop!" Ichigo shouted, running towards them. He reached forward and grabbed one of the boys by the collar. The boy struggled as Ichigo lifted him off of the other boy and into the air. Ichigo dropped the boy and made a quick jab to the back of his neck, knocking him out. He hoisted the now unconscious boy onto his shoulder.

"Here," said Ichigo, offering a hand to the other boy. The girl from District 3 scooped up one of the throwing knives and rushed Ichigo and the boy. Ichigo responded with a kick to the girl's hand, sending the knife tumbling to the ground. She took a step backwards, holding her bruising hand.

"What the hell was that for?" She cried angrily.

"You were going to kill him!" Ichigo yelled back.

"And what of it? You were going to kill him anyway," the girl shot back.

"Kill hi-" Ichigo said, "of course not! I was going to help him up and take him with us."

"Who's 'us'?"

"Us! Now come on," Ichigo said. He was just about to turn to offer the boy his hand again when he felt the boy's reiatsu flare with anger and killing intent. He turned around to find that the boy had picked up a knife and was charging him with it. Ichigo ducked as the boy stabbed, then surged upwards with a punch to his jaw. The boy fell in a heap on the ground, unconscious.

"Come on," said Ichigo, sighing with relief and picking up the boy. "That's both of them," he said, turning to the girl from District 3, "follow me." She shrunk away. Her logical brain told her to run far away from the tribute from District 12 and never look back, but some sort of gut instinct told her to stay.

"Are you following or not?" Asked Ichigo.

"Y-yes," the girl said.

"Good. This way," said Ichigo, taking off at a run to return to the Cornucopia. The girl was surprised that he could run so quickly with two people slung over his shoulder. "Hey," Ichigo called into the Cornucopia, "It's me." There was no response. "I know you're there," Ichigo called, "Come out." There was a rustling from deep in the Cornucopia and the girl from earlier poked her head up, saw the girl from District 3, and ducked quickly down again. "It's ok, she's a friend," Ichigo called. The girl poked her head out again.

"Do you have food?" Ichigo asked. The girl nodded. "Then bring it over here." The girl grunted as she dragged a large duffel bag into sight. "Grab the other end of that bag," Ichigo ordered the girl from District 3. She nodded and went to help the other girl.

"Relax," the girl from District 3 said tersely, thinking about how strange things had turned out. The timid girl relaxed slightly and took hold of one end of the bag.

"Let's leave, follow me," said Ichigo, heading in the direction of the forest.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" They all heard a shout. Ichigo turned towards the direction of the scream. The source was a young boy, thirteen years of age, with black hair. He was charging Ichigo unarmed and was just about to make contact when Ichigo threw one of the boys he was carrying into him, sending both of them tumbling into a bag packed with food. The boy was struggling to push the unconscious body off of himself when Ichigo planted a foot on top of him, pinning him.

"Let me go, carrot top!" The kid shouted angrily, continuing to struggle under Ichigo's foot.

"Not until you calm down, kid," said Ichigo with annoyance.

"I'm not a kid!" The boy yelled.

"Shut up!" Said Ichigo, "now, if you promise to come with us, I'll let you go."

"Like hell! I'm not taking orders from anybody!" The kid said.

"Morris! That's enough!" The girl who had stayed behind in the Cornucopia cried, "he's a friend." The kid stopped struggling instantly.

"Fine," muttered Morris.

"Now promise that you'll come with us," the girl said. Morris mumbled something incoherent. "Louder," said the girl.

"I promise."

"Good," said the girl. Ichigo took his foot off and picked up the unconscious boy again.

"I take it you know each other?" Ichigo asked.

"We're the District 7 tributes," the girl replied.

"Morris, is it? Find a pack with some food and water in it," said Ichigo. Morris hesitated.

"Morris," the girl from District 7 said warningly. The kid instantly got to his feet and rushed into the Cornucopia.

When Morris returned, they followed Ichigo into the forest.

"Where are we going?" The girl from District 3 asked.

"Away from the Cornucopia, for now," Ichigo replied.

"And then what?"

"We stay alive," said Ichigo.

The girl from District 3 was confused. Ichigo, with his strength and speed, could easily have killed most of the tributes in the beginning and go on to win the Games, but instead he saved her from certain death.

_What reason could he possibly have?_ _D_oes _he want us to join him so he can oppose the Careers' group with a group of his own? _She thought back to him using her machete to deflect an incoming knife. _But with that kind of skill, would he really need a group?_ She continued to think about it as they trekked through the forest.

As Ichigo lead the group, he reached out his senses to try and locate Katniss. Now that his reiatsu wasn't in the way, he found tracking to be much easier.

"This way," he said when he felt Katniss.

"Why?" The girl from District 3 asked.

"Because…" Ichigo paused as he tried to think of something, "I… heard something." He inwardly winced at his lame excuse.

_I really need to work on some better ways of responding,_ he thought to himself. It was late afternoon when they heard the cannons. Every blast represented another dead tribute, and Ichigo felt more pained with each report. He carefully counted the shots.

_Six dead._ _Not including us, that makes twelve others still alive._ Ichigo realized that he had lost Katniss's reiatsu again. He reached out, disregarding the souls of the rabbits and other small animals that lived in the forest.

_Found her,_ he thought when he felt her reiatsu again, _she's close._

"Just a little bit further," Ichigo said to the other tributes, "then we can rest." The idea of rest was a welcome one to the tributes. While Ichigo could have easily kept going well into the night, his new comrades were getting tired. They soon came to a small clearing and Ichigo heard a groan from his right. "Good, you're awake," he said. The source of the groan was one of the boys that Ichigo was carrying. Ichigo set down both of the boys and sat opposite them, his legs crossed.

"Ugh…" said the boy. His eyes flew wide open and he scrambled to get up. Ichigo stopped him with a foot to the chest.

"Stop struggling and I'll let you go," said Ichigo. The boy continued to push against Ichigo, clutching his ankle. Ichigo pushed harder. "Weren't you listening?" He asked. The boy realizing that his efforts were futile, stopped moving.

"Well?" The boy demanded, "Are you going to let me go?" He was surprised when Ichigo removed his foot. He made a break for it and rushed away from the clearing.

"Hold it," said Ichigo, grabbing his collar. The boy was suspended by the back of his shirt, his legs swinging uselessly below him.

"What do you want?" The boy asked.

"Your name."

"Huh?"

"We haven't even introduced ourselves yet, I want to know your name."

"…" The boy didn't even know how to respond to this. Here he was, in the Hunger Games, being held up by his collar. His life wasn't even being threatened. "Uh…"

"Oh, sorry," said Ichigo, "I guess I should say my name first. Call me Ichigo."

"Uh… Griffin," said Griffin. Ichigo set him down on the ground, but held his grip on his shirt.

"Now, I'm going to let you go," said Ichigo, "and you won't run, right?"

"R-right," Griffin said weakly. Ichigo sat down against a tree and let out a relieved sigh.

"Now that that's over with, lets introduce ourselves," said Ichigo. The tributes nodded. "You first," he said, pointing to the girl from District 7.

"Me?" She asked. Ichigo nodded. "Uh… my name is Willow, from District 7, nice to meet you all," she said nervously.

"I'm Morris," said Morris, "also from District 7." Ichigo looked expectantly at the girl from District 3. She ignored him. Ichigo's gaze did not falter.

"Fine. My name is Anna," she said. Ichigo's attention shifted to Griffin.

"I just said my name," Griffin said defensively. Ichigo continued to stare. Griffin flinched. "Griffin!" He said, like he was warding off a demon, "my name is Griffin." He relaxed only when Ichigo stopped staring. The clearing was silent briefly as Ichigo opened the duffle bag that Willow had filled and passed out some water. It was Anna that broke the silence.

"Why?" She asked.

"Huh?" Asked Ichigo in reply.

"Why did you save us?"

"What do you mean 'Why'? Because I wanted to," Ichigo replied with annoyance.

"That doesn't answer my question," pressed Anna, "You could have just let us all die, so why didn't you. It would have made your life easier."

"What the hell kind of attitude is that?" Ichigo asked, a vein in his forehead bulging, "I save your life and you tell me I should have let you die? I hate it when people do that!"

"Well _sorry_ for wondering why you're so weird!" Anna shot back.

"Weird? How am _I_ weird?" Ichigo asked, "have you ever even _seen_ what weird looks like?"

"I could write a book on how weird you are, and I just met you!" Said Anna.

"Why you…" Ichigo said.

"Please calm down," said Willow, "people might hear you!"

"Hmph… I was done talking anyway," said Anna.

"Me too," said Ichigo, crossing his arms and resolutely staring at a shrub.

* * *

Katniss stopped in her tracks when she heard the cannons.

_Only six,_ she thought, _I wonder why there are so few._ Katniss remembered from previous years that the death toll was usually much higher. She decided to take the time to go through her pack, now that she was far enough away from the area where the other tributes were. Crackers, dried beef strips, iodine, matches, a packet of wire that would be useful for trapping animals, sunglasses, and empty half-gallon container for water. _Empty,_ Katniss thought with annoyance, _was filling it really that hard?_ She became painfully aware of her dried and cracked lips. She needed to find water if she wanted to survive. She fervently hoped that the lake near the Cornucopia wasn't the only source.

Suddenly, she heard a rustling behind her and she drew her knife. She was relieved to find that the only thing behind her was a rabbit.

"Nice to see you," she whispered. A rabbit this far away from the lake meant that there was at least one more water source, and it was nearby. A rabbit also meant food. Where there was one rabbit, there was always more. She packed up her things and stood up to resume her journey.

* * *

Ichigo stood up when he felt Katniss's reiatsu begin grow fainter.

"Rest time's up, let's go," he said, picking up the still unnamed and unconscious boy and throwing him over his shoulder.

"But we just sat down," Morris protested, "and besides, you don't get to give me orders!"

"Morris," said Willow quietly.

"Well… it just so happens that I was just about to start walking again, so I guess you can tag along," said Morris.

"Whatever you say, kid," said Ichigo with exasperation.

"I'm not a kid!" Yelled Morris.

"Shhhhhh!" Willow said nervously. The girls picked up the duffle bag up again and began to follow Ichigo through the forest.

"I can carry that bag now," said Ichigo, looking at the two girls.

"No, no. That's alright," Willow said.

"Sure, go ahead," said Anna, putting her end of the pack down. Ichigo grabbed the straps of the gigantic pack with one hand and put them on his unoccupied shoulder.

Ichigo and the others continued walking, following Katniss, until nearly an hour after sunset.

"Ichigo," said Anna, "You may be able to keep going, but the rest of us need to rest." Ichigo stopped and turned around. Behind him, he saw that all the tributes had stopped.

_She's right, _Zangetsu said, _we can catch up with Katniss tomorrow._ Ichigo reluctantly set his burden down.

"Fine, we'll camp here," he said, unzipping the bag.

"I'll get wood for a fire," said Willow.

"I'll go too!" Morris said eagerly.

"Don't," said Anna, "You'll just show people our position if you light a fire."

"It's getting cold though," Willow said. Ichigo rummaged through the pack and pulled out a sleeping bag.

"Here, use this," he said, putting the bag in Willow's arms. Ichigo continued to rummage through the pack and found some more sleeping bags. "We need a couple people to keep watch while the others sleep," he said, handing the bags out, "I'll go first, who wants to take the second half of the night?"

"I will," Anna volunteered. She trusted herself much more than she trusted some wood-cutter from District 7.

"Alright," said Ichigo, "now get some sleep, you'll need it."

* * *

**Lots of new characters this chapter. Please review for the chance to win two tons of imaginary books! Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi again, I finally finished chapter six! Sorry about the wait. Please Review. For every review, a new kitten or puppy is born, so help raise the amount of cute animals in the world by telling me what you think of my story!**

* * *

"Peeta Mellark…"

"Indeed, he is one to be watched."

"But shouldn't we kill him now?"

"No, he makes for excellent TV, and our viewers would be disappointed if he died too soon."

"And if he gets out of hand?"

"Then we make our move."

* * *

Ichigo sat with his back to a tree with his eyes closed, keeping watch by feeling out the surrounding area for the reiatsu of the other tributes. All he had noticed so far was his own group, as well as some birds and the occasional rabbit. He had been sitting there for roughly five hours, and he was beginning to lose his patience. Not only was it uneventful, it was cold. Freezing, in fact. The night air nipped at his reddened nose and he pulled the collar of his coat higher. Another hour slowly passed, and he was beginning to think he would go insane from boredom. He was about to stand up and find something to do when hefelt a slight spike of reiatsu as someone in the camp woke up. There was a rustling as the person got out of their sleeping bag and stood up. Ichigo felt the tribute step over the sleeping forms of the others towards him. The person slowly and quietly inched closer. He could feel the tribute's reiatsu shifting in tone now, between half-heated killing intent and fear.

_That's Anna's reiatsu, _Ichigo realized. He decided to shift, to see what she would do. He felt a slight rush of air brush over him as she silently jumped backwards, before slowly and carefully making her way away from him.

He cracked an eyelid open to see that she was rummaging through the duffel bag on the other side of the clearing. Ichigo stood up as quietly as he could and carefully stepped over the sleeping forms of the other tributes, towards Anna.

"What are you doing?" Ichigo whispered when he was right beside her. She gave a little yelp and jumped backwards, almost falling onto the sleeping form of Morris. Ichigo reached out and grabbed her hand to steady her. "Careful," Ichigo said quietly. Anna pulled Ichigo's hand, raising her fist and throwing a punch towards his face. Ichigo caught her hand in an iron grip and twisted her arm behind her back. She twisted around in his hold, trying to escape.

"Let me go!" She hissed angrily.

"What were you going to do once you ran away?" Ichigo asked. Anna continued to struggle, twisting around and sinking her teeth into Ichigo's shoulder. Ichigo winced as she bit deeply into his skin. "Are you really better off on your own?" Ichigo continued, "with the Careers hunting, do you really think you can take on two groups of tributes by yourself?" Ichigo felt her jaw relax slightly. "Why can't you just stick with us for a while?"

Anna thought about Ichigo's words, keeping her jaw tight. He was right, she was safer in a group than on her own. She made a decision, removing her teeth from Ichigo's shoulder.

"Fine," she said quietly, "I'll stay." Ichigo released her arm.

"I'll put this stuff away, you just get some sleep," said Ichigo, "I'll wake you up later for your watch." Anna watched as Ichigo packed up the things she had removed from the duffle bag.

"Wait," she whispered, grabbing his shoulder before he could return to his spot, "how did you know I was there? You looked asleep."

"I… uh…" Ichigo muttered, "felt your… presence." It was the truth, of course, but he somehow doubted that she would believe him. Anna had to stifle a laugh.

"My presence?" She scoffed, "that's right up there with 'I can see ghosts'. Honestly, did you really expect me to buy that?"

"AHHHH! Stay away! Don't hurt me!" A third voice screamed, startling them and filling the cold night air. Ichigo and Anna jumped and whipped around, to where the previously unconscious boy was struggling to get out of the sleeping bag he had been placed in the previous day. Anna was on top of him in seconds, holding a hand over his mouth.

"Mmmppphhh!" The boy cried, trying to escape.

"Shhhh!" Anna hissed, "we'll be heard." The boy's cries became slightly quieter. "I'm going to take my hand off of your mouth, will you be quiet?" The boy stopped making sound, nodding. She carefully removed his hand.

"Where am I?" The boy asked in a panicked voice.

"A forest."

"Why would I be…" the boy trailed off, "oh… right," he said, remembering the events of the previous week.

"Right," Ichigo agreed. "Anna, wake everyone up. If the Careers have ears, they'll have heard that scream," he said.

"Right," said Anna, releasing the tribute boy. The others had already been woken up by the boy's shouts, and were rubbing the sleep from their eyes.

"Wha' happened?" Griffin asked sleepily.

"That idiot over there woke up," Anna said with irritation as she rolled her sleeping bag up, "let's move."

* * *

Katniss was awoken to the sound of a scream in the distance. It was still dark, and she was sure that some unfortunate tribute had been ambushed. She waited silently for the sound of a cannon, but nothing came. It was strange, she thought, that the scream hadn't been followed by a death. She began to unbuckle the belt that held her into the willow that she had fallen asleep in. She wondered if perhaps Ichigo had something to do with how few deaths there had been. He and Kisuke had been talking about escape, was that part of it? Surely it would be better for Ichigo if he just tried to escape by himself. She was just about to begin climbing down from her tree when she heard a popping sound. She froze, casting her gaze cautiously around her. She found the source of the sound several hundred yards to her right, where some _Idiot_ was breaking branches on purpose. She fervently hoped that whoever was apparently planning on starting a fire would reconsider. Nope. Katniss saw sparks, and a small fire appeared. The group of Careers that were almost certainly combing the forest for victims had a bright, blazing 'I'm here' sign that would lead them straight to where Katniss was. All Katniss could do now was stay still and try to make as little noise as possible.

* * *

As he lead his small group of tributes, Ichigo reached out spiritually for signs of other tributes.

_There's Katniss,_ he thought, _there's someone near her, butI don't think_ _they've noticed each other._

"Let's speed up, there's something ahead," Ichigo called to the group. He continued to scan ahead both visually and spiritually, until he saw a small light in Katniss's direction. He mentally cursed. Had Katniss started a fire? _No,_ he thought, _she's not stupid enough to do that._ He felt her reiatsu spike in anger, signaling that she wasn't happy about the fire either. He felt other people closing in on the location of the fire, and he broke out into a run.

"Where are you going?" Griffin called after him.

"Ahead, if you lose sight of me, just keep going," Ichigo paused, and added, "no one kill each other, ok?" Then he turned and rushed ahead towards the fire. He could hear the person who started the fire now, crying for mercy.

_Damn!_ Ichigo cursed, _I'm, not going to make in time at this rate!_ He charged as fast as he possibly could towards the screams of the unfortunate tribute. He had one chance, Flash Step.

_Ichigo,_ said Zangetsu, _Don't push yourself. This body can't withstand Flash Step right now._

_I have to try!_ Ichigo replied, _I can't just give up!_

_It's not poss—_

_I have to try! _Ichigo repeated, cutting Zangetsu off.

_If you won't listen to me, then at least let me guide you._

_Fine by me, _Ichigo thought. He gathered his reiatsu towards his feet, and felt Zangetsu's measured presence guide and moderate the flow of power, making sure that his body wouldn't disintegrate under the strain. Ichigo tensed, preparing to release his stored energy.

_Ready?_ Ichigo asked.

_Yes._

_Then on my mark. Three, two, one, GO!_ Ichigo felt intense pain as the reiatsu he had stored was released instantly, propelling him through the forest. Trees rushed past him in a blur, and Ichigo felt his bones creaking under the strain. Soon, he could see a group of people ahead. He could see a burly boy had a knife poised at a girl's neck, about to pierce her skin as she screamed for help.

To the group of tributes that Ichigo had landed in the middle of, Ichigo seemed to appear instantly, causing a rush of displaced air to rush over them. The boy with the knife staggered backwards in surprise. Ichigo shifted his weight forward and used the left-over momentum from the Flash Step to punch the boy hard in the face, sending him flying into a tree. Ichigo's legs gave out under him, no longer able to support him after the strain he had put them under.

_Please don't do that again,_Zangetsu said as he tried to regulate Ichigo's reiatsu. Ichigo knelt for a moment, panting, in front of the dumbstruck Careers.

"Not planning on it," he muttered. He turned a scowling gaze on the Careers. They flinched backwards, before running away as fast as they possibly could from the monster who had just apparently teleported into their midst and took down their biggest member in one shot. Ichigo turned to the girl, who hadn't moved since he had arrived.

"Are you alright?" Ichigo asked, trying to stand up.

"Y-yes," the girl replied weakly.

"That's... good…" Ichigo trailed off when his vision began to blur. He slumped forward, his consciousness slipping away.

* * *

Katniss watched, frozen, as Ichigo blurred into existence next to the Careers to punch one of them in the face.

_When did he… how did he…?_ Her thoughts trailed off. She was still coming to terms with Ichigo's sudden appearance when she saw him slump to the ground. She climbed quickly down the tree she was in and began to run towards Ichigo. _What the hell am I doing?_ Katniss asked herself. She reached the place where Ichigo was and saw that his legs were bleeding badly, staining his pants red.

_What the hell happened to him?_ Katniss wondered. The idiot who started the fire was standing with her back against a tree with her eyes wide open in shock. Seeing the girl like that caused Katniss to realize that she needed to get herself together and make sense of the situation. She reached to her back to grab her pack and realized that she had left it in her tree in her confused rush. She cast her gaze around for something to stop the bleeding. Her eyes fell on a large duffel bag that had fallen near Ichigo. She fumbled with the zipper, running it along the edge of the pack to open it. She began to pull out things haphazardly from the pack. Some snacks, a small role of steel wire, an open pack of matches, even a knife, but none of it was particularly helpful for stopping Ichigo's bleeding. She reached deeper into the pack, and pulled out a small bundle of bandages. _Finally!_ She thought to herself. She cut Ichigo's pants away at the knee to look at his wounds. There were small cuts everywhere, and Katniss hoped that they wouldn't get infected. Then she wondered why she hoped that, when he would have to die in the end if she hoped to escape. She began to wrap Ichigo's legs with the bandages, trying to leave enough for later, since she would have to remove them once they found water to clean his wounds.

"Um…" the girl said quietly, "is there anything I can do to help?"

"Yeah," Katniss snapped, "don't light a fire."

"Sorr—"

"Sorry doesn't help anything! You would be dead right know if it weren't for this idiot." Katniss knew that getting angry wouldn't solve anything, but she didn't care. She just wanted to blow off some steam. The girl went silent and watched as Katniss finished bandaging Ichigo's feet.

"Did you see what happened?" Katniss asked the girl.

"Well… he wasn't there one second, and there the next," the girl replied unsteadily, "I can't explain it."

_So now he can teleport?_ Katniss thought, _where does his weirdness end?_

* * *

"Uung…" Ichigo moaned, trying to open his eyes.

"He's awake!" Ichigo heard a voice somewhere above him, "don't crowd! Give us some space!" Ichigo opened his eyes to see four or five blurry shapes hovering above him. He tried to push himself up and immediately felt pain lance through his entire body.

"Uung…" he repeated.

"Don't move," one of the shapes said with concern. His eyes began to clear to find that Willow, Anna, Griffin, and the girl who was going to be stabbed all sitting above him.

"What… happened?" Ichigo asked muzzily.

"Were going to ask you that," said Anna, "You just completely disappeared. And then we find you unconscious with your legs all ripped up."

"Oh… I guess that makes sense," Ichigo said, trying once again to push himself up.

"We told you not to move!" Anna said, pushing Ichigo down again, "and what do you mean by 'that makes sense', not one bit of this makes _any_ sense!" A silence fell over the group for a moment. Anna shifted uncomfortably.

"So, what happened after I passed out?" Ichigo asked.

"Well…" The girl that Ichigo had saved spoke up, "the Careers ran away and some girl, I think she was from District 12, came and bandaged your legs."

_So Katniss did that, after all that talk about us being enemies, _Ichigo thought.

"The boy you saved me from was taken away and—"

"Taken away?" Ichigo interrupted.

"Yes, by a big claw," the girl replied.

"Damn!" Ichigo cursed, causing the girl to flinch, "is he dead?"

"Y-yes, I think so."

"Damn," Ichigo cursed again. He hadn't meant to punch the boy so hard.

_You probably would have had to kill him anyway, in the end,_ said Zangetsu.

_Probably, but that doesn't mean I wanted to, _Ichigo replied.

"Anybody else dead?" Ichigo asked.

"I don't think so," the girl replied.

"Good," said Ichigo. "I'm Ichigo, by the way."

"I-I'm Ellie."

"Nice to meet you," said Ichigo. "What happened to Katniss?"

"Who?" Ellie asked.

"The girl from District 12."

"She ran away when everyone else came." Ellie replied. Ichigo reached out his senses to try and find Katniss. When he did, he felt an intense pain shoot through his body.

"Are you alright?" Willow asked when she saw him tense.

"Fine," Ichigo said. "We should start moving soon," he continued, trying to change the subject.

"Idiot," said Anna, crossing her arms, "you just regained consciousness, give it some—" She cut herself off when Ichigo began to stand up. "Wait! You're injured!" She said, trying to push him down again. She was pushed backwards herself as Ichigo pushed upwards, easily overpowering her.

"We don't have the time," Ichigo said resolutely, grabbing the duffel, "let's go find some water."

"But—"

"No buts, I can rest later," Ichigo said, beginning to walk. Anna realized that she would get nowhere with the stubborn teen, and began to walk with him.

"I guess we have no choice. Are you guys coming?" She asked, throwing a glance behind her. The rest of the group hurried after them, not wanting to be left behind.

* * *

"Now… Peeta, let's see exactly how you pulled that one off… Computer, show Peeta one minute before the death of Cato."

"**FOOTAGE DISPLAYED**" The man watched as Ichigo ran through the forest at a sprint.

"Peeta was too far away, so how did he reach Cato and Ellie so quickly?" The man muttered as he watched as Ichigo blurred off the screen. "Computer, slow the footage down and search for a high-speed camera in the area."

"**REDUCING SPEED**"

The man saw the slowed down footage and saw Ichigo once again blur. This time, however, he could see that the blur traveled across the screen for a brief moment before disappearing.

"**HIGH-SPEED CAMERA FOUND**" The computer announced.

"Display it." The camera displayed itself in the main screen, showing Ichigo blurring past in slow motion.

"Peeta Mellark… what an interesting specimen."

* * *

The sun was high in the sky, and Ichigo and his group still hadn't found any water.

"Let's stop here," Ichigo said, setting down the duffel. The group of tributes found various places to rest while Ichigo passed out the remainder of the water from the duffel bag before sitting down himself.

"How are they?" Anna asked, setting down next to Ichigo with her back to a tree.

"Who?" Ichigo asked. Anna punched Ichigo on the shoulder, where she had bitten him. "Ouch! What was that for?"

"Your legs," Anna said, "how are they?"

"Oh," Ichigo said, "They don't hurt anymore."

"Of course they do," Anna replied, "let me see them." She reached over to Ichigo's legs to undo the bandage. Ichigo tried to shoo her away.

"I'm fine, really," he said as Anna wrestled with him.

_Idiot,_ Anna thought with annoyance. She decided to go with a more direct route.

"OW!" Ichigo cried in pain when one of Anna's fist descended on his legs with considerable force.

"See? Now it hurts." Ichigo stopped moving, and Anna knew that she had gotten her point across. As she removed the bandages on Ichigo's legs, she assured herself that she was just making sure that the idiot didn't die before the Careers were gone. What concerned her was that she had had an impulse to check Ichigo's wounds _before_ she had decided that he would be useful against the Careers. He really was quite the enigma. First he demonstrated that he was easily capable of killing anyone in the arena, then he demonstrated that he apparently didn't want to. And, most recently, he _teleported_ right in front of Anna's eyes to save yet another person that he could have just let die. How had he done that, anyway? Maybe something from the sponsors, although she had never heard anything about the Capitol having developed a teleporter. She would just have to ask.

"You never really explained how you did… whatever it is that you did," Anna ventured as she inspected the cuts in Ichigo's left leg.

"It's… complicated," Ichigo said with some reluctance. Anna pressed a thumb angrily onto one of Ichigo's cuts. If he wouldn't talk, she would force him to.

"OW!"

"Tell me," said Anna with annoyance.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Ichigo said. Another annoying attempt to avoid answering. Anna's thumb pressed harder, and she started to use her finger nail. "OWOWOW!" Ichigo cried in pain, "alright! I'll tell you."

"Good," Anna said with some satisfaction, removing her thumb from Ichigo's cut.

"What exactly did you see?" Ichigo asked.

"Well, one second you were running ahead of us towards that fire, the next you were gone," Anna replied, "it was like you teleported."

"I didn't teleport…"

"Then did you turn invisible?" Anna interrupted, "did the sponsors give you something already?"

"No, not that either," Ichigo said with annoyance, "Look, I can't tell you if you keep interrupting."

"Fine, but speed it up, I don't want to wait through any more dramatic pauses."

"Alright," Ichigo said with exasperation, "what I did if called a Flash Step, it's a technique where I use my…" Another pause. Anna felt the beginnings of a twitch forming in her left eyebrow as she waited for him to continue.

"…my power to push me forward with some extra speed," Ichigo finished.

_His power?_ Anna thought as she stared blankly at Ichigo for a moment. _What a load of crap,_ she thought as her eyebrow twitched again and she reached her hand towards a particularly painful looking cut.

"Wait!" Ichigo shouted, "I'm telling the truth!" Something in his voice made Anna pause. "I told you that you wouldn't believe me," Ichigo muttered. Anna decided to hear him out a little bit longer.

"And this 'Flash Step', which you do using some sort of 'power', is just a skill you pick up in the process of baking bread?" Anna asked, her voice doused in sarcasm.

"Well…"

"Go on…"

"I'm a reincarnated Shinigami Daiko!" Ichigo blurted out. This earned him another punch to the shin.

"Reincarnated? That's bullshit and you know it!" Anna yelled in frustration. "this isn't over," she said over her shoulder as she stalked away.

_Shinidieko?_ She thought, _what the hell kind of dance is_ _that anyway?_

* * *

It was now early afternoon, and the sun was high in the sky.

The last of the water from the Cornucopia had been drained, and the entire group was beginning to feel it. The dryness was now taking over their tongues, having long since finished with their lips. Normally, Ichigo would have reached out with his senses to perhaps find the weak clustering of reiatsu that would signify a pond, but with his soul still recovering from his Flash Step, he wouldn't be able to do much sensing for a while.

_That conversation could have been handled with more delicacy..._Zangetsu carefully commented as Ichigo stepped over a log.

_It's not my fault she didn't believe me!_ Ichigo thought back defensively.

_It still could have been better handled._

_Whatever._

"Hey," said Anna, waving a hand in front of Ichigo's face. "Hey!"

"Huh?" Ichigo grunted muzzily, dragging himself out of his conversation with Zangetsu.

"Finally," said Anna with exasperation, "Willows been saying that she smells water lilies."

Ichigo's brain processed the meaning of the statement.

_Willow says that she smells Water Lilies._

_Water Lilies._

_Water!_

"Where?" Ichigo asked, suddenly completely focused.

"Up ahead." Ichigo brushed pass Anna towards where Willow had stopped.

"Willow," Morris said, "who cares about some stupid flowers… I'm thirsty." Ichigo stepped up behind him and lightly hit the back of Morris' head. "OW! What was that for?" He asked with annoyance. Ichigo ignored him.

"Which way?" He asked Willow. She paused for a moment, sniffing the air, before pointing ahead and slightly to the right.

"this way, I think," she said, before hurriedly adding, "I'm not even sure if it's really Water Lilies I'm smelling…"

"It's better than nothing," Ichigo said, "let's go before we lose our light."

* * *

Katniss froze. She had been so focused on the wonderful, life-giving pond that she hadn't heard the voices until they were almost on top of her. She carefully and silently made her way over to a ledge that she prayed would hide her from sight. She entered a state of hyper-awareness brought on by a mix of adrenaline and fear. She winced every time there was the slightest sound from the water, and she could hear the voices getting closer. They were close enough now for Katniss to be able to make out what they were saying.

"I can smell them really strongly now," a somewhat wispy voice said. Katniss tried to fit the voice to a face, but she had been mostly focusing on the Careers during the interviews and she couldn't quite place it.

"Lead the way."

_Wait, _Katniss thought, _is that Ichigo's voice?_

She could hear the footsteps now, and she could tell that they were nearly to the ledge that Katniss was hiding under. Her heart felt like it had replaced her Adam's apple in her neck, and it was beating fast enough to make most professional drummers jealous. She willed them to leave, to let her live a little bit longer, but the footsteps only got closer. Someone was on the ledge now, right above her.

"I found it!" She heard the person who sounded like Ichigo call. She steeled herself. Maybe if she made a run for it she could survive, she had already drank her fill, and there had to be another pond somewhere else. She tensed, ready to move, and then she heard a snap from above her. She looked up. Small cracks were beginning to spread across the ledge, and bits of dust were already beginning to fall. She was just about to break from her cover and run when the ledge above her caved in.

"AAAAHHHH!"

* * *

"AAAAHHHH!" Ichigo cried in surprise when the ledge he was standing on crumbled, toppling him head-first into the water. He righted himself and broke the surface of the water quickly, spluttering. The sight he was greeted with sent him straight back into the water again. He pushed himself out of the water once more, coughing up a little bit of inhaled water.

"YOU!?"

The girl in question froze for the second time in the last five minutes, before turning and pushing herself through the shallow water and towards the shore as fast as she possibly could. She was stopped by an iron grip on her wrist.

"Wait!" Ichigo said. Katniss struggled against Ichigo's hold, but he easily twisted her arm behind her back. "Hear me out," he said hurriedly.

"Let me go!" Snarled Katniss.

"Ichigo?" Someone called from above the pond, "are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Ichigo called back, "I just fell a couple feet." Katniss wondered why Ichigo didn't say anything about the fact that she was there with him. Ichigo was about to continue to persuade Katniss that he wasn't a threat when the wind shifted and he smelled something strange in the air. "Do you smell that?" He asked quietly. Ichigo's thoughts were abruptly jerked away from the strange smell when Katniss pushed herself backwards into him, catching him off guard. They teetered for the briefest of moments, before they both fell backwards into the water. Katniss surfaced first, triumphantly free from Ichigo's hold. She waded to the edge, snatching up her pack and rushing into the forest with Ichigo hot on her heels.

"Wait!" He cried, "I only want to talk!" Katniss kept running with her head down and focusing on not tripping on the roots that webbed out from the trees all around her. Some part of her had the time to notice that it was getting hotter, and a faint orange light was now being cast across the forest floor.

_Is the sun already setting?_ That small part of her wondered. Then that small part of her noted that there was no way that much time had already passed.

"FIRE!" She heard the call from behind her. Katniss's brain processed the information available in slow-motion.

Strange smell.

Heat.

Orange light.

FIRE!

Katniss felt a fresh surge of adrenaline rush though her as her basest instincts screamed,

_Fire bad!_

* * *

**Lots of action this chapter, and hopefully you are enjoying all the OCs that I've added. Again, please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Well hello there... yeah I haven't updated in two months... yeah. I'm sorry, I had a really bad case of writer's block for the first bit of the chapter, and then I (counter intuitively) procrastinated with the rest of the chapter because I felt guilty about taking so long. Eeurgh...**

**Hopefully I'll post the next chapter in a more reasonable fashion.**

**Oh yeah, I'm thinking about going back and naming all these chapters with proper names, so I'm completely open to suggestions.**

**Anyway, here's chapter 7! I hope you guys enjoy!**

* * *

"FIRE!" Ichigo called, pushing his injured legs to carry him faster. Katniss was rushing directly towards the sudden blaze, too focused on escaping from Ichigo to notice the orange light up ahead. "DAMN IT, KATNISS, FIRE!" He had to stop her. The wall of fire was gaining momentum, and if she didn't turn around soon, it would be too fast to keep ahead of without a decent lead. Abruptly, Katniss turned around, slipping on leaves as she struggled to reverse her direction. She dodged around him with a sideways leap.

"About damn time!" Ichigo shouted, kicking up debris from the forest floor as skidded against his momentum. He rebounded against the ground and sprinted after Katniss. The wall of fire was getting even faster, spreading from branch to branch and pelting Ichigo's back with heat. Fire was an adversary that Ichigo had faced before, but never like this. The fire he had battled was fire in its purest form, an unrelenting inferno of power. This fire was acrid, filling the air with hot, thick smoke that burned his eyes and seared his throat. The heat was reaching deeper now, traveling from his throat to his lungs. There was something wrong with the smoke, he was sure of it. It pulled at his senses, his concentration… even his resolve to move was slowly slipping away from his.

_Damn… Zangetsu,_ Ichigo mentally called.

_I'm here,_ Zangetsu's voice echoed through Ichigo's head, his usually calm voice tinged with anxiety, _your inner world is… blurring._

_That's what it feels like out here,_ Ichigo replied grimly as he ducked under a burning branch, _I think it's the smoke. How long can we keep going?_

_I can hold our consciousness together for perhaps another thirty minutes,_ said Zangetsu, _if you focus._

_No choice,_ Ichigo thought back, _let's do this._

* * *

"This way!" Anna urged as she stopped to make sure that the other tributes were still with her. She wasn't even sure why she was trying to help the idiots. _Maybe it's the smoke,_ she thought with a snort. The fire had come practically out of nowhere, lighting up the forest with a brilliant shade of orange that reminded her of Ichigo's hair. The canyon had also seemingly popped up out of nowhere, and she had nearly fallen in. The bottom of the canyon long and deep, and was safe enough from the choking smoke, but not entirely from the heat. It seemed to be out of reach for the Capitol's fireballs for the moment, but Anna wasn't going to push her luck. She casted her eyes along the canyon, searching for some way to get out of their current predicament.

"Come look at this!" Anna heard a call from further down the canyon. She looked to where the boy she had mentally dubbed 'Nightmare Idiot' (she hadn't caught his name) was pointing. A hole in the canyon wall, partially covered by a boulder. "It looks like it goes pretty deep!" The boy held a hand next to the hole. Anna did the same, and she felt a slight breeze blowing from within.

"Well don't just stand there," Anna said, bracing herself against the bolder, "help me get it out of the way!" A few seconds later, the bolder fell to the side and Anna felt the breeze blowing from the tunnel and cooling her sweaty skin. She nodded to herself. She'd take a tunnel over a canyon any day. They were even less flammable, they were cool, and they could even keep Anna's group safe from the smoke if they went deep enough.

_My group?_ Anna scoffed, _what the hell am I doing?_ She thought as she called for the tributes to follow her and walked into the tunnel.

* * *

Flame.

Flame everywhere.

_How impudent,_ Morris thought as he ran away from the forest fire. _Wait… 'Impudent'?_ Was the thought that followed next, _since when do I think like that?_ He shot a glance to his side to reassure himself that Willow was still next to him. He didn't care about anyone else, especially not that damn lover-boy baker's son. Just as long as there was willow.

They had been separated from the rest of the group when a rotting tree that had been set alight by a _fireball _(what the hell) and fallen to cut off the small canyon that the tributes had rushed into to avoid the rising smoke. He was partially glad that they had been cut off, because he didn't trust that District 3 girl, or anyone other than Willow, to keep from murdering him in his sleep. They were ahead of the smoke and the wind was carrying it away from the direction that he and Willow were traveling. He also continued to have the strange feeling that the fire was also out of line, and his mind kept labeling it things like impudent and rebellious. _Rebellious_… honestly, it was like he was going senile. He was barely into his teens, and he was already going senile. He blamed it on his lack of sleep. And the fire, which was acting rebellious.

BOOM!

The sound of a canon in the distance startled him and he turned his head behind him briefly to glance at the ever-advancing flames. One down already, huh? He ducked as a small ball of fire rushed over his head.

This was going to be harder than he thought.

* * *

Anna took a deep, ragged breath, filling her abused lungs with the cool breeze that came from deeper in to the cave.

"Does anyone have a light?" Anna called, "is everyone alright?" In hindsight, she probably should have asked the latter first. She had never been very good with people. She was answered by a chorus of ragged affirmations and a click as someone turned on a flashlight.

"I have one here," said Griffin, holding up the light. Anna took a second to cast her attention around the cave. It was a small, round corridor that couldn't have been more than six feet wide. It traveled in a straight line into the darkness. "Just one way to go, huh?" Griffin commented out loud. Anna rolled her eyes, ripping the flashlight out of his hand and starting down the tunnel.

"Keep up," she said tersely. Thirty minutes of walking later, Anna was starting to feel uneasy. The tunnel was unnaturally straight, and she still couldn't see any sign that it had an ending, other than the constant breeze.

"Anna," said Griffin from somewhere behind her, "when is this tunnel gonna end? I'm tired… and thirsty… and—"

"I don't care!" Anna yelled, turning to face the annoying boy, "so am I, and if you keep whining about it I might just kill you myself!"

"Alright, alright," Griffin said "you don't have to—"

RUUMMBBLE…

The tunnel shook around them, dislodging dust and pebbles from the ceiling.

"W-what's happening?" Griffin asked, dropping to his knees to keep his balance.

"CAVE IN! RUN!" Someone shouted from the back of the group, pushing Anna forward. She didn't have to be told twice. She sprinted as fast as she could through the tunnel. Suddenly, a large rock fell from the ceiling, hitting the flashlight in Anna's hand. Darkness filled the corridor. The light was gone. Anna kept running, reaching out her right hand to touch the side of the tunnel. She almost lost her balance when the wall she expected to find wasn't there.

"What…?"

She reached to the other side cautiously, her pace slowing only slightly, and once again her hand swiped through open air. The rumbling was subsiding now, and the pebbles that had been pelting her were coming less frequently now.

"Anna!" A voice called from somewhere behind her, "STOP!" Anna wasn't the type to listen to what other people say, but there was something in the voice that made her pause. It was damn lucky that she slowed down when she did. Her right foot slipped down, and she was just barely able to catch herself. He shin scraped a sharp edge and she scrambled backwards. She didn't dare move. Somehow, at some point in time when she was running from the cave-in, the narrow tunnel had widened into a much larger space, and now she had almost fallen down a sharp drop of indeterminate length. She fished around in the dark in search of a pebble. The one she found was about the size of her thumb, and almost as smooth. She tossed it behind her and listened. No sound came.

"Anna?" The same voice as before called, Griffin's Anna realized, a note of panic clearly audible.

"I'm here!" She called back, "don't move, there's a cliff here."

"I know, I almost fell."

"Where are the others?" Anna asked before she could stop herself. She inwardly scoffed at herself. Worrying about others when her life was in danger? Where did all her training go?

"I think everyone is ok, I told them to stop." Griffin said, "You have a light, right?"

"It broke." Anna said simply.

"It broke? How… never mind," he cut himself off, "that was mine anyway."

"Oh, yeah." Anna replied, carefully removing her backpack from her back, making sure to keep her balance. She fumbled into the zipper and opened the pack, blindly rummaging around for a flashlight. Her hand closed around a small cylinder that she assumed was the light, and she rotated it until she found the switch. She lifted the now lit flashlight and shined it around.

"Ow! Don't point that thing in my eyes, Anna." Griffin said when the light found him. Anna laughed slightly, more out of nervousness and relief than mirth. "It's not funny!" Anna stood up, ignoring the pain in her shin and helping Griffin to his feet by his collar. The rest of the group wasn't far away. And she walked over to do a quick head-count.

_Eight-girl, griffin, and I make three… Didn't we have four?_

"Where's nightmare idiot?"

"…Who?" Griffin asked, "Oh right… that guy." Griffin searched towards the cliff, taking the flashlight and leaving the rest to call in the dark of the tunnel. There weren't many places where the guy could be. Behind them there was nothing but rubble, blocking their way, in front there was a cliff. And there was no Nightmare Idiot in between. No one needed to voice it, they all knew. The boy was dead.

The group of survivors sat in silence in the tunnel. Death was harder to swallow when you knew the person who died. Hearing a cannon and knowing logically that someone was dead was one thing, but having talked to the person before they were gone forever, and even being saved by them was an entirely different matter. Griffin, to Anna's surprise, was the first to move.

"Come on," he said, "I have something to show you two." They followed him as he took the Flashlight and went out towards the cliff again.

"Wow…" Ellie said as Griffin casted the light around. Anna's jaw dropped. There, in the light, was the biggest building she had ever seen.

"Wow…" She agreed.

* * *

Katniss was stumbling. She, unlike Ichigo, did not have the spirit of a sword living in her head to help hold her consciousness together. Ichigo swept her up of the ground, throwing her over his shoulder.

"Let me go!" Katniss protested somewhat tiredly.

"Shut up and let me rescue you," Ichigo replied flatly, jumping over a log.

"Let me… let me…" Katniss mumbled, her consciousness slipping.

"No." Ichigo felt Katniss relax into his hold, unable to resist the smoke any longer. Ichigo's body had been hurting less and less, and he felt his agility increasing at the same time. His movements felt smoother and the world around him was slowing down. It felt good. He picked up his pace. Then he felt a new pain in his leg. It felt like it was on fire. What the hell just happened? His answer came in the form of a fireball hurtling towards his head. Ok, now this was getting ridiculous. Were the Capitol people _that_ impatient? Couldn't they wait for longer than half an hour? He was already running away from a wall of fire, and they needed him to dodge fireballs too? Another one grazed his jacket, setting it ablaze. He shifted Katniss as he threw his jacket off before it could burn him too badly. The fireballs continued to fly at him and Katniss with alarming accuracy. And he wasn't able to avoid them all completely. There had to be somewhere he could take shelter from these fireballs. He franticly scanned the surrounding forest, searching for a way out. Then he fell and was immersed in water. He spluttered, struggling to keep both Katniss and himself above the surface. He dragged Katniss to a small part of the shore that was safely nestled under a rocky overhang. His vision was getting foggy, and his thoughts were getting less coherent.

_Ichigo,_ said Zangetsu warningly.

_I know,_ Ichigo cut him off,_ I can feel it._ He set Katniss down where she wouldn't slip under the water and set himself down next to her. The last thing he saw, before whatever was in the smoke finally pulled him into unconsciousness, was a picture of a little man. He was wearing a little hat and standing on top of a pair of sandals, painted in green above him. The text below the man said:

**I give you the gift of life. :)**

* * *

There! Up ahead! The forest was coming to an end.

"Look!" Willow coughed.

"I see it! Hurry!" Morris wheezed back. They stumbled a good distance away from the edge of the forest before collapsing on the dusty ground. Morris rummaged in his pack, pulling out the bottle of water that he had barely had the time to fill before the group was sent packing by the forest fire.

"Here," he said, passing it to Willow. She nodded, sitting up and taking a swig before handing it back to Morris. She then proceeded to cough until tears streamed down her cheeks. Morris took a swallow of the water himself before joining willow in what felt like coughing up a lung. Morris looked back at the forest, where the fire was still burning. Then, suddenly and without warning, he felt angry. He pushed himself up to his feet and strode towards the blaze, unable to stop himself. It felt… right, somehow. Like he was waking up and finally taking the natural course of action when faced with a wall of fire.

"Know your place, childish flames!" He boomed, more loudly than he had ever thought he was able to.

VOOMP.

The bright orange flames were instantly extinguished, dying down like they were ashamed by their actions. Morris nodded, satisfied.

_Wait… what?_ He thought, feeling weak.

Then he passed out.

* * *

Griffin cast the flashlight past the building, and Anna could hardly believe her eyes. Behind the massive structure was another one, almost exactly like it, and another one in the distance behind that one.

"Why didn't you tell us about this sooner?" Anna asked snappishly when she finished ogling.

"I thought we were having a moment of silence…" Griffin replied, trailing off at the thought of the missing tribute. Anna didn't have a response to that. Instead, she took the flashlight out of Griffin's hand, and pointed it in another direction.

"Over here," she said, "there's a ramp." The light illuminated a set of ancient, worn stairs with rusted railing that lead down into the darkness.

"Go down?" Griffin suggested. There were no objections. Anna started downwards. In addition to being very old, the stairs were very long, and very straight. Anna kept close to the rocky cliff face that they were built into. She didn't trust the decayed railing to support its _own_ weight, let alone hers. She shined the light outwards towards the rows of massive sky-scrapers curiously. Although, she mused, they would probably be called ceiling-scrapers. Somewhat of a misnomer though. If she pointed the light downwards, she could just barely define the shape of the ground, but a flashlight really didn't put out enough light to help visibility so far away. She had taken to shining the light through the windows of the buildings as she walked past, peering in and trying to guess what the building had been used for, when the city was populated. An office… another office… what _is_ that? A room full of phones… It helped take her mind off of her dry throat, hunger pangs, and thoughts of the Nightmare Idiot. The end of the stairs was more visible now, and the flashlight illuminated a dark covered arch built over the last twenty or so steps. The faded sign that could have once been colored a cheerful yellow read:

**Welcome to Avalon, Diamond in the Rough.**

In big black letters. Underneath the arch were several rusted pedestals that looked like they might have once held little bits of information about the city. Now they held nothing more than dust. They walked through the arch and into the city.

The only thing that 'Avalon' and the Capitol had in common was the size. Where the Capitol was brightly colored in candy tones, Avalon was faded and dull. The streets, which in the Capitol were filled with people draped in neon-colored, style-of-the-week clothes, were eerily empty. The slightest noise echoed through the cold expanse loudly, reminding the three how obvious they were.

"Let's go into one of these buildings, maybe find some water," Anna said, whispering involuntarily and pointing to one of the relatively smaller buildings. It wasn't improbable. She remembered some of the more well-off places selling bottled water, and if it was bottled and sealed properly, it was almost certainly safe to drink. The store she had pointed out looked like it had once been painted in a rich red color, now the paint was faded and peeling. It had a small sign hanging from a tattered awning, reading '**John's Pizza**' in bold black letters. The other two nodded, following her up to the door. Anna stopped in front of the door and swallowed. There was really nothing to be afraid of, Anna told herself. Whatever people had lived in this city were long gone. There was no one inside. She fought back her nervousness, taking a firm hold of the cold doorknob and twisting. It was unlocked, and Anna pushed. It slid easily open on its hinges, that is, until it slid _off_ of its hinges and his the ground with a loud echoing clonk. Anna winced, tensing and shooting a glance behind her. Nothing besides Ellie and Griffin. She took a breath, steading her heartbeat. The inside was a mess, tables and chairs knocked over, floor covered with bits of dusty glass. It looked like the place had been abandoned as quickly as the occupants could, to the point of ignoring everything between them and the door. Anna walked gingerly over to the counter, glass snapping under her boots. She shined her light into a little open-air refrigerator. She could have cried out in joy (She didn't, but she felt like she had it in her at the time). There, carefully lined up by some long-dead employee, were five perfectly intact water bottles. She picked one up, carefully inspecting it. It was dusty, but otherwise ok. A couple of hands reached over her shoulder each taking one for themselves.

"Nice," she heard Griffin whisper in appreciation. Then, as one, all three tributes opened their bottles and downed them. The water tasted like plastic, and it left a powdery feeling in their throats, but water was water, and they were thirsty.

"Good find," Griffin said, gasping for air.

"Yeah…" Anna trailed off, "thanks, by the way…" She mumbled quietly, regretting the words even as she said them.

"Hm?" Griffin mumbled.

"For saving me…" Anna said awkwardly. Now that she had started, she would go all the way.

"Huh?" Griffin replied, temporarily confused, "…Oh yeah. Sure… you're welcome." Anna almost wanted to strangle him. What kind of half-assed reply was that? They sat in painfully awkward silence while Ellie watched, unsure of what to do.

"Well…"

"Anyway…"

"We should get going." They both said in unison. Then Anna punched Griffin in the shoulder and walked out the open doorframe.

"Uh… Anna?" Griffin called behind her, "we still haven't checked the rest of the restaurant." Anna stopped in her tracks, cursed and re-entered the building.

_Damn it, Griffin._

* * *

"Morris... what…?" Willow asked breathlessly. Morris didn't respond. "Morris?" Morris swayed, and Willow rushed forward to steady him. She arrived at his side just in time to stop him from falling backwards into the dust. "Morris!" Willow laid him down, beginning to panic as she checked his breathing. His chest was steadily rising and falling. She breathed a sigh of relief. Just sleeping.

Now what?

The fire was out (because of Morris?), but the heat and smoke hadn't dissipated yet, so the way back to the pond was blocked for now. Not that she knew the way. She dragged Morris to the unburnt edge of the clearing, looking for a place to hide while he regained consciousness. She was about to set him down in a little niche she had found when a flash of grey at the edge of her vision caught her eye.

"Stay here," she whispered, setting Morris down, before going to investigate. She pushed her way through a few low-growing branches to find herself standing in front of a small square shed made of concrete. The door was rusted through, revealing a staircase leading… downwards? Maybe a store-house of some kind, she thought. If it was, it could be incredibly useful. Like a mini Cornucopia, all to themselves. She clamped down on her overly optimistic imagination as she cautiously pushed the rusty door open. A slight breeze wafted from inside.

"What…" She murmured to herself. There was a small, plastic fold-out table standing up against one wall of the shed. It held a single flashlight and nothing else. She gingerly picked it up, fearing a trap.

Silence.

She breathed a sigh of relief. She turned the light on and pointed it down the stairs. Her eyes widened in surprise. The stairs went down. Far. So far that she couldn't see the bottom. She quietly picked her way down the stairs one level. There was a door, rusted only slightly less than the one above. She twisted the knob, back against the door, peeking inside. It was a large room, filled with short walls made out of what could have been fabric somewhere in the past. Right now, they looked like they were completely made of moss. At the sides of the room, there was glass, giving an excellent view of the dirt and roots from the outside. That was just weird. The 'shed' was looking more and more like one of the buildings in the Capitol. Except someone had decided to build it almost entirely underground. It wasn't a bad thing though. From the top, it was a small shed, surrounded by trees, inside, it was a perfect shelter from the elements. She exited the room, heading back to where she had left Morris.

This would do.

* * *

The city had turned out to be filled with hidden treasure. Plenty of stores like the one where Anna, Ellie and Griffin had found water lined the streets, and there was food to be found as well. A large amount of it had turned to dust, and some of the packaged food had gone bad as well, but there was still plenty left. With food, water, and shelter taken care of, the group of three were at a distinct advantage towards the tributes above. All Anna had to do was stay in the city, as soon as she… As soon as Griffin and Ellie were… She couldn't bring herself to finish the thought. Damnit. She couldn't believe how easily her emotions had gotten the better of her. She had never thought of the tributes (other than her fellow District 3 tributes) as really human. They had always been obstacles, in the way of her district's glory and her own family's wealth. She couldn't even put Ellie and Griffin in the category of Other Tributes, and she certainly couldn't think of them as obstacles. She cursed again. There was still time, she told herself, at least a few more days.

"Anna…" A hand fell on Anna's shoulder.

"Eek!" Anna squeaked, startled. "Y-yes?" She said, clearing her throat awkwardly.

"We're leaving." Griffin said.

"Yeah…" Griffin lead out the door, and Anna followed behind him.

"By the way, Anna," Griffin said as they walked.

"What is it?"

"…Eek?" He inquired cautiously. "Ow!" Anna picked up her pace, leaving Griffin rubbing a fresh bruise on his shoulder.

* * *

Katniss woke up feeling strangely warm. She snuggled deeper into the warmth sleepily. She opened her eyes and her view was immediately filled with orange. It wasn't fire though, which raised the question. What was it?

"Ah!" She squeaked, jumping back and blushing. It was Ichigo. He was sleeping beside her, an arm wrapped protectively around her for some reason. Wait. Why was she sleeping next to Ichigo? This question was accompanied by sudden recollection of the events that had transpired earlier. She had fallen unconscious, something about the smoke. The smoke that had been coming from the fire. The fire that she had been in the middle of when she fell unconscious. And now she was here. Laying in a pool of water, shivering, and fighting back the urge to curl back up next to Ichigo's warmth.

_Alright, Katniss,_ she thought to herself, _calm down and think about this logically._ She was alive, a good thing. Surrounded by water, also a good thing. The fire was gone, another plus. Ichigo was with her… she'd come back to that one. She was hungry, that was definitely a bad thing, but she still had her pack and there was still some food left in it. Over all, the plusses outweighed the minuses. Food was manageable. She could always set a trap and catch some small game once the remainder of what was in the pack was gone. A quiet moan beside Katniss signaled that Ichigo was awake.

"Oh. You're awake already." He said. He either didn't know or didn't care about the way they had been sleeping, Katniss thought. Then she mentally slapped herself for thinking about that first. "How are you?"

"U-um…" Katniss was taken aback. Ichigo stood up, looking her over with obvious concern. Katniss felt the sudden urge to cover herself.

"F-fine," she said, folding her arms, "what about you, you're burnt." He was. In several places around his body his clothes were burnt through and his skin was blistered. Katniss cringed uncomfortably at the sight. She had always hated burns.

"Oh this?" Ichigo said, glancing at the blistered spot on his arm, "I'll be fine." What kind of resistance to pain did he have? Her own burns weren't nearly as bad and they hurt like hell, and he was ignoring his like they were nothing. "You coming?" He asked, stepping out of the pool.

"Wait," Katniss said, "what makes you think that I'll follow you?"

"Well…" Ichigo replied. She had a point. Then Katniss acted on a whim.

"Never mind, keep up." She walked briskly past a very confused Ichigo and into the charred remains of the forest.

"Oi!" Ichigo called after her, "Wait!"

"Keep up," Katniss replied, "We're going to the Cornucopia."

* * *

**Please type something in the little box below and press that review button! I can't overstate how awesome it is whenever someone reviews this. In fact, I encourage you to write your own fic (if you haven't already) so that you know how great it is to receive feedback on something you've written.**


End file.
